


Hot-Blooded

by sarkywoman



Category: X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Arson, BDSM, Dubious Consent, F/M, Intoxication, M/M, Mind Rape, Non-Graphic Violence, Sexual Content, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-21
Updated: 2006-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 10:03:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 34
Words: 76,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarkywoman/pseuds/sarkywoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Underage tag to be on the safe side because some characters are 17.) After the events of X2 but prior to X3 (The Last Stand), John returns to the Institute, running from the psychological demons he has accumulated during his stay with Magneto. Not all of the students are keen to see him return, but those who do want him there might be essential to his survival. Magneto taught him to lose control, now John has to find a way to regain it. And Magneto isn't about to let Pyro go without a fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 2006, for the LiveJournal community dry_ice. I realised I don't really have it archived anywhere else, so I'm putting it up here. Be aware that this is my writing of six years ago, so it's a little lame in places.
> 
> IMPORTANT: Warnings, pairings, characters and rating will change as I update and I intend to try and copy it all over from LJ today, so please keep checking the notes if you have just begun reading.

**Hot-Blooded**

  
Bobby Drake had been shaken awake in the middle of the night – his clock proudly glaring 3:00am at him – by Wolverine, of all people. The teen had tried to pull his blanket up over his face, but it had been dragged away roughly.  
  
“Come on kid, Professor wants you out of bed and downstairs.”  
  
Bobby squinted up at Logan, who was silhouetted by the bright hallway light.  
  
“Isn’t it a little early for a Danger Room run?”  
  
The man chuckled briefly, pulling a cigar out of his pocket.  
  
“It’s never too early, but that’s not what’s going on. Come on kid, the Professor’s asked for me, you and Storm down at the front door. I’m thinking we might have an unwanted visitor, so if you could haul your ass out of bed before the Professor’s kicked out of his wheelchair, that’d be great.”  
  
Bobby kicked out of the blankets and reached down into his drawer for a pair of socks. Logan grunted.  
  
“Got a light? I know you shouldn’t, but I won’t tell on ya.”  
  
Bobby didn’t hesitate as he reached to the back of his sock drawer and handed a lighter up to the man. He glanced up while pulling his socks on and saw Wolverine frowning.  
  
“What? You asked.”  
  
“Yeah, but I didn’t expect one.”  
  
“It was John’s. He left it here.”  
  
Bobby could feel Logan’s heavy gaze on him while he searched for a pair of jeans.  
  
“I thought the Professor put all the kid’s junk up in storage?”  
  
“He must have missed it.”  
  
It was the first thing Bobby had done when he returned to his room after John’s desertion, grabbed as many of his lighters as he could and hid them. He’d wanted something…  
  
“Meet you downstairs, kid.”  
  
“Sure, I won’t be a minute.”  
  
Sure enough, forty-five seconds later, Bobby was suited up and ready to go. Okay, it wasn’t his X-Man suit, but he couldn’t be expected to sleep in the thing, could he? Hurrying downstairs silently, he wondered what could require his presence. Hopefully it wouldn’t be major, since none of the other students had been summoned.  
  
He reached the foyer, where Logan was standing with the Professor and Storm by the front door, looking grave. They looked up when he jumped the bottom steps.  
  
“Bobby, I’m sorry to wake you up at this hour, but your powers may be required.”  
  
“I hope not,” Storm muttered.  
  
“Well yes, obviously we’re hoping that John is here for the right reasons, but…”  
  
“Whoa, John’s here?!?” Bobby interrupted, shocked to the core.  
  
“You know what they say, ‘speak of the devil’,” Logan said, smirking with no sense of humour behind it. Bobby ignored him.  
  
“Why has he come back?”  
  
“I expect we will shortly find out, Bobby.”  
  
“Couldn’t you find out while he’s on his way?”  
  
Xavier fixed him with a disapproving stare. “I don’t take liberties with people’s minds, you know that.”  
  
“But he could be dangerous.”  
  
“That is why I have you three here,” Xavier finished with a smile. “Open the doors, Logan. You turned off the garden security, Ororo?”  
  
Bobby looked out over the front lawn as the doors were opened, hoping to god that John wasn’t here for a fight or to show off or anything else that would involve Bobby having to overexert himself in order to win. John’s power was formidable. Since he’d left the Institute, John seemed to live for little more than the flame.  
  
Then there was a glow in the darkness beyond the gates. It got larger and brighter as it moved closer. John warily approached the gates, small flame in the palm of his hand, looking as though he would turn tail and run any moment. Bobby wondered where all the macho bravado had gone. Storm pressed a button on the wall and the iron gates swung open wide. They were inviting him in, but he hesitated.  
  
It felt like Pyro’s eyes were on him only and it burned as if it was Scott without the ruby glasses. Then John looked at the floor as he made his way towards them, like a naughty runaway child, and Bobby wanted them to be staring at each other again. He’d forgotten how John made him feel.  
  
But however dejected and lost John appeared, he had courage enough to ascend the steps and stop just beyond the threshold of the doorway. Was he limping?  
  
“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Wolverine drawled sarcastically.  
  
“I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.”  
  
He’d stopped meeting their eyes and was staring at the floor as though he thought he’d be turned away. But Iceman saw Xavier’s expression soften, as expected, and the psychic wheeled backwards to allow room for Pyro to walk back into their sanctuary.  
  
“Bobby, could you take John’s bag upstairs to your room? He’ll be joining you shortly.”  
  
“Sure thing,” Bobby said briskly, trying to suppress the annoyance at being sent to his room as though an adult programme had just started on tv. He lifted the duffel bag up in his hand and took the stairs two at a time. When he reached his room he put the bag carefully on the bare bed and resisted the urge to look inside. Anything John had owned before he left was in the attic, so that bag must be full of things Magneto had bought for him. As usual, thoughts of Magneto treating John made Bobby feel uneasy, so he went through the cupboards for some sheets and blankets instead.  
  
It was an hour or so after he’d made the bed up that John was standing in the doorway with Logan. Bobby hid his surprise as Logan squeezed John’s shoulder in a supportive fashion before taking his leave. John walked into their room slowly, as if he was in shock that he was actually there.  
  
He sat on his bed and got out a lighter. But before he’d started the familiar habit of flicking it and toying with the fire, he sighed and put it away.  
  
“So how you been?”  
  
Bobby looked at him in disbelief.  
  
“How have I been? That’s the first thing you say?”  
  
“I said I was an idiot and that I was sorry.”  
  
“You said that to the Professor.”  
  
“It was addressed to everyone. I’ll put a banner up in the dining room if you want.”  
  
Bobby nearly rose to the bickering as though nothing had changed, but he noticed something had.  
  
“What happened to your head?”  
  
John reached up and gingerly prodded at the new stitches.  
  
“I started a fight. Should have known better, I guess.”  
  
Bobby watched as John visibly gave up and reached for a lighter. They were his security blankets, he’d realised a long time ago after the first few months of watching the teen enthralled by the flame.  
  
“You’re really stuffing yourself with humble pie, aren’t you?”  
  
John’s sculpting of the flame faltered and it looked ordinary again.  
  
“I’ve not had a very good day. I’m feeling….”  
  
Bobby bit his tongue in his haste to stop the word ‘vulnerable’ completing that sentence.  
  
“Why’d you leave?”  
  
John didn’t look up.  
  
“Here or there?”  
  
“Either.”  
  
“I left here because….no. Um, I left the Brotherhood because they’re a bunch of psychos.”  
  
“You’re a psycho.”  
  
John snapped the lid back on his lighter and dropped it on the floor, then threw himself back onto the bed, turning away from Bobby.  
  
“Night then,” Bobby muttered, feeling annoyed that after all John’s changes, they still couldn’t get along.  
  
He flicked out the lamp and the room went dark.  
  
“Night Bobby.”  
  
That, along with the small flickering firelight on the opposite wall, led Bobby into the soundest sleep he’d had for months.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Hot-Blooded**

  
Pleasure seared through his veins like fire, making Pyro arch his back and moan in hedonistic abandon. He scrunched his eyes shut and felt a drop of sweat slide down his forehead. He could barely breathe, but it felt so good…   
  
“Look at me, Pyro.”   
  
He forced his blue eyes open to see the steely grey-blue eyes of his current lord and master. Pyro let out a low groan as Magneto drove into him particularly hard. It felt so good but it was release he wanted, he needed to let go…   
  
“Please, please…”   
  
Magneto pressed their lips together and stroked his cheek fondly, breathing heavily between clenched teeth.   
  
“Such a wanton little thing. Beautiful.”   
  
Pyro cried out again after another viciously hard thrust. His eyes closed again, a tear escaping down to the pillow. He reached out his right hand to the bedside table, trying to meet Magneto’s thrusts and get to his lighter at the same time. Calm grey eyes watched his outstretched arm even while he was properly fucked.   
  
Just as his fingertips touched the metal lighter, it flew across the room, too far away. They’d have to stop, but he couldn’t stop…   
  
“Please, just let me…”   
  
“No my dear, no fire this time. You will climax without a crescendo of flame.” Magneto gripped Pyro’s slender hips firmly.   
  
The tears appeared faster now. Pyro raked his scorched fingernails down Magneto’s naked back, making a sound between a scream and a groan that was animalistic. The tension was building up so high but he couldn’t let go, he couldn’t lose control…   
  
“I need it!”   
  
“No!” That sharp thrust was nothing less than violent. “You need me and only me!” A large hand wrapped tightly around Pyro’s throbbing erection, stroking smoothly in contrast to the rough penetration. Pyro felt ten degrees too hot. The room was a blur, Magneto too, everything was just a hazy mosaic of touch and heat… burning heat… needed release…   
  
Then the room caught fire. John came with a scream.   
  
“John!”   
  
“I’m sorry,” he moaned out breathlessly, but it was a lie. He didn’t even think about how he’d made the fire, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was how good it felt, to feel the fire…   
  
“JOHN!”   
  
He woke up with a start. It was Bobby shouting at him, not Magneto. He was at the Institute in their bedroom, not in Magneto’s Brotherhood.   
  
But the room was still on fire.   
  
He looked around as Bobby extinguished the curtains and carpet with icy flicks of the wrist. When the flames were all put out, the Iceman turned to him.   
  
“Morning.”   
  
“Morning. What the hell was that?”   
  
“You tell me, fire’s your thing.”   
  
“Oh shit, I did that?”   
  
Bobby shrugged, frowning. “I don’t see how, you don’t have a lighter.”   
  
John chewed on his bottom lip nervously. “Yeah, about that… I kinda don’t need them anymore.”   
  
Bobby’s eyes widened. “What? You mean, you can make the fire now?”   
  
“Yep.”   
  
“Since when?”   
  
“Couple of months ago, in the Brotherhood.”   
  
“How did you do it?”   
  
John looked away at the wall. “I just evolved.”   
  
Bobby’s expression was disbelieving. “What, you woke up one day and realised, oh hey, I can make the fire?”   
  
“How did you find out you could make ice then?” John asked defensively. There was no way in hell Iceman would get the uncensored tale. Bobby would probably never look at him again if he knew the things Pyro had done with the Brotherhood. Although, the look he was receiving now was hardly full of adoration.   
  
Before Bobby could say anything, there was a rap on the door, which swung open to reveal Professor Xavier. The bald man smiled at them.   
  
“I trust everything is alright?”   
  
Bobby nodded. “Yeah, everything’s cool. Is breakfast ready?”   
  
“Yes, Rogue is waiting at the top of the stairs for you.”   
  
Bobby left the room. John sighed. The door closed as Xavier approached him. “John, how are you? I notice the room is a bit burnt.”   
  
“I’m sorry.”   
  
He didn’t look up. He knew Xavier would be studying him intently. With or without his powers, the man constantly read the people around him.   
  
“It’s okay John, I can afford redecoration. It is you that I am concerned for.”   
  
John couldn’t believe that. “Me? Why? Bobby’s the one who nearly got fried. I’d have been fine.”   
  
“You’re manipulating fire on a subconscious level now, aren’t you?”   
  
“I’m doing it in my sleep, if that’s what you mean.” He risked glancing up. Xavier did look concerned. “Is that bad?”   
  
“Not if you think you could control it while sleeping,” Xavier said with an eyebrow raised.   
  
“Right. Got it. Sleeptorching equals bad. So what do we do about it?”   
  
“I doubt you’ll like the suggestion.”   
  
“Go on.”   
  
“Psychic therapy sessions with me. So we can determine what triggers the flame.”   
  
“I know what triggers it.” Then he hated his own mouth for speaking.   
  
“You do? What?”   
  
“I’d rather not talk about it.” Sex, passion, heat, sweet uncontrollable desire…   
  
Xavier sighed. “John, you promised us you would accept our help and our teachings. You need help with this. Bobby can handle a small fire, but next time it might not just be your room. What if you set fire to the bed next door? How would Scott put out a fire?”   
  
“He'd think of something.”   
  
Xavier frowned. “And in the bedroom to your right there are three boys aged between nine and twelve, none of whom have effective fire-fighting powers. Did you wake when the room was alight?”   
  
“Bobby woke me.”   
  
“If you don’t even wake when your own room is alight, what hope do the children have of you saving them? John, I deem your safety to be of the utmost importance, but I have other lives in my care too. If you won’t accept our precautions…”   
  
“I’m too dangerous to stay.”   
  
“I don’t want to even consider that at the moment, John. This is a sanctuary for all mutants…”   
  
“Save the selling speech. Not all mutants try and kill the others in their sleep.”   
  
“Were you trying to hurt someone?”   
  
“No, but… I wasn’t thinking about anyone, I just wanted the fire.”   
  
“In your dream?”   
  
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a dream, really. I dreamt something that actually happened.”   
  
“You revisited a memory?”   
  
“Yeah.” John reached for the lighter on the floor. He didn’t know when it had fallen off the bed, but he needed it now. He could feel Xavier’s eyes on him as he flicked the lighter on and off.   
  
“A good memory or a bad one?”   
  
“Um…” That was the question really, wasn’t it? Because it should have been bad, John knew that, but it had been really fucking good. Nobody had touched him like that before except himself and then all of a sudden he was in something so much more than he could have ever imagined.   
  
“John, I can feel you projecting.” Xavier raised his hand to forestall the anger. “I can block that, you still have your privacy. I haven’t seen anything but a brief glimpse of fire. Other psychics however, cannot block mental projections. They will see whatever you aren’t saying. I can stop that, but only if I know what I am keeping from them.”   
  
“Sex.” After all, better him than other kids boring their eyes in him over dinner.   
  
“I’m sorry?” Xavier seemed genuinely surprised.   
  
“The first time I made fire was during sex.”   
  
“John… I don’t know if I approve of you having sex so soon. You’re only seventeen and I don’t believe you are in a relationship.”   
  
John wasn’t at all surprised. “It’s not like I sat down and planned it. It just kind of happened.”   
  
“In the Brotherhood?”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
“Who was he?”   
  
It didn’t surprise John that Xavier knew his sexual orientation. “Who do you think?”   
  
“There are a few possibilities. I’d rather you told me than I hazard a guess.”   
  
“Magneto.” A sharp intake of breath from Xavier made John look up at the man. He was clutching the armrests of his wheelchair tightly, a look of horror on his face. Great. Just great. “Now you think I’m a sick freak.”   
  
Xavier regained his composure and took hold of John’s free hand. “No, you misinterpret my reaction. Me and Erik have been friends for a long time.”   
  
“He told me.” Magneto had told him a tragic story about star-crossed lovers one night. It had made him think of himself and Bobby.   
  
“Did he? Well, we were extremely close. It hurts me to see him sinking so low as to take advantage of a troubled teenager. Especially one of my own students, who I consider a friend.” He was really laying it on thick now, Pyro couldn’t help but stick a knife through the sugar-coating.   
  
“You’re not just jealous I fucked your ex then?” He sneered.   
  
But his smile faded as he saw the way Xavier looked at him. It was the way Magneto looked at him when he couldn’t keep his powers under his control, or the way Bobby looked at him when he made some stupid comment about Rogue. It was disappointment.   
  
Xavier shook his head. “You’re angry. I’m not entirely sure I know why.”   
  
“You! You’re being sickeningly soft to me and it’s so fake and unnecessary.”   
  
“I’m a forgiving person by nature, John. And you ought to remember that if I wasn’t ‘sickeningly soft’, as you put it, you wouldn’t have been taken back into my home.” That put a stick in John’s spokes.   
  
“I’m sorry.”   
  
Xavier squeezed his hand gently. “That’s alright. But back to our previous conversation, do you think you would find some therapy useful? A chance to talk about what has happened to you might make you feel better.”   
  
He wanted to say no. He couldn’t feel alright about Xavier going through his mind, seeing his dark desires and flaming needs. But what were the other options? He couldn’t stay if he couldn’t control himself and he had nowhere else to go.   
  
“I guess I could give it a try.”   
  
“I would appreciate the effort. We will discuss times later. First, we will eat some breakfast, since I imagine you’re hungry.” The thought of food made John’s stomach rumble loudly and John grinned sheepishly. “Then you will resume classes. Don’t look at me like that; you’re perfectly capable of attending. You will have to take extra lessons I think, in order to catch up. Is that okay?” John nodded. He didn’t want to fall behind the other students in anything. “Good. Then let’s make our way to the dining room.”   
  
They proceeded down in silence, taking the elevator for Xavier’s convenience. As they reached the commotion that was students’ communal breakfast time, John heard Rogue’s voice erupt in loud laughter above everyone else’s.   
  
“Bobby Drake, you are a pain in the…”   
  
She trailed off, along with everybody else in the room, as John entered with the Professor. Scott was the first to speak.   
  
“Professor, what is he doing here?”   
  
The disgusted tone hurt Pyro, even though he’d been prepared for it.   
  
“John is resuming his studies and training with us, Scott. He has apologised for…”   
  
“For leaving us in the snow? For letting Jean die!”   
  
“They were taking the heli anyway, it’s not like my leaving changed anything,” John said sullenly.   
  
“He joined the Brotherhood, he can’t just waltz back in here with an apology!” John could see other mutants looking at him in the same way. He wasn’t wanted here. “He could be spying for them!”   
  
“Give him a break Scott,” said Bobby, standing from his seat. “This is a sanctuary for all mutants, not just the ones you like. It’s the Professor’s decision, not yours. Deal with it.” He sat back down, everyone staring at him in amazement. “I saved you a seat, John.” He gestured to the one on his right, the opposite side from Rogue.   
  
John ignored the manic psycho butterflies in his stomach and went and sat next to him, carefully avoiding Scott’s hateful glare. The death of Jean must have really hit the guy hard.   
  
“Thanks Bobby.”   
  
“Don’t mention it. Pass the toast?”   
  
And just like that, breakfast continued as though it was an average day. As people levitated butter and exploded sausages, John found he didn’t even want to burn everyone to death. So it couldn’t have been an average day. Maybe he’d be alright staying here after all.   
  
“But Bobby,” he heard whispered, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that arsonist freak was back!”   
  
“Rogue, sssh. I’ll make it up to you, promise,” was Bobby’s murmured reply.   
  
There was a squeal from down the table as Kitty’s cereal ignited.   
  
Maybe he wouldn’t be alright.

 


	3. Chapter 3

** Hot-Blooded **

  


John had walked into the dining area nervously, only to find Magneto sitting at the head of the small table, seemingly waiting for him. A chair was placed opposite, with a plate and cutlery set out neatly.

“Pyro, do sit.” John complied. “It’s just me and you this evening, Mystique has taken the night off after her hard work as a politician.” He smirked, as if telling a vaguely amusing joke.

John sat down at the table, relieved beyond measure to see that there was only the usual arrangement of knife, fork and spoon so he was not about to be tested for table etiquette. Magneto always made him feel like a street urchin being momentarily cared for by an eccentric billionaire, and it made him feel he was walking on eggshells. He did not want to have to crawl back to the X-Men for any reason.

“You may help yourself to bread. Wine?”

Pyro nodded. “Thanks…sir,” he said as he took small ovals of buttered French bread from the metal basket. He didn’t even think people had metal baskets. The wine was white and Magneto had filled his glass to the brim. He took a sip and kept his face blank. It was alright, but not great. He hadn’t really drunk alcohol before, except for that evening him and Bobby had drank that beer and then they’d both passed out in his bed…

Magneto watched calmly as Pyro took another large sip. Too large to be a sip, really. 

“Do you like pasta?”

Pyro nodded. “Yeah, pasta’s good.”

“Good. Have you been watching the news today? Harman has been raising some interesting points in his opposition to Senator Kelly…”

And the conversation went on about politics and mutant rights until the middle of the chicken pasta main course, when the conversation had veered towards Pyro’s opinions on ethics, which pretty much consisted of the opposite of everything Xavier had ever told him. Magneto had discussed his own interpretations of Xavier’s ideals and there had been heated debate. Pyro could barely believe he was arguing with Magneto, but put it down to all the wine he’d been drinking. His glass would never be empty for more than a couple of seconds before Magneto filled it to the brim again with sparkling alcohol. Pyro thought he might be getting a little drunk.

This was confirmed when, after their meal, Magneto called him over to sit on the couch and he’d stumbled on his way. Magneto had put an arm around him when he’d sat down, and he’d felt the fire in his blood. He’d wanted to burn and the warm breath in his ear told him they could do just that…

“I think that is all I need to see for now,” Xavier’s voice cut through the image. John leant back in the chair, gasping as the real world dropped into his vision. He wondered if Xavier knew how turned on he was and he tried to pull his hooded sweater further down around his hips.

“Well doctor, is it fatal?” John said, poorly attempting to dissipate the tension.

Xavier smiled. “It was definitely enlightening.”

“Really?” John said, disbelieving. It hadn’t seemed all that important to him, little more than a set-up for some hot man-on-man action.

“Yes. You were feeling overheated almost as soon as you started drinking. I think alcohol might be a catalyst for your abilities. And I think Magneto knew that. You are by nature a reckless person and your powers seek release. The tension that you feel when you are bored or angry, you used to alleviate when playing with fire.”

John brought his hand away from the pocket containing his lighter and rested it back in his lap.

“Now though, you create the fire. And I believe that psychologically, you have connected emotional release to the physical manifestation of flame. Now, whenever you bottle up your feelings…”

“I subconsciously make a fire to try and get it out.”

Xavier nodded. “That’s correct. Although the most violent reaction seems to be provoked by lust,” John respected the man more for his lack of hesitation, “I expect you will have the same problem with anger, fear or even extreme unhappiness.”

“Great,” John muttered sarcastically, “I’m a fucking neurotic time-bomb.”

“This mansion is all about teaching control, John. Don’t worry. You were lucky before, control came naturally, but now you are in the same shoes as a lot of other mutants here. Also, I meant to ask you if this is what happened at the recent riot in England?”

“Huh?”

“Whether you lost control there. Or was it intentional?”

John couldn’t meet his eyes. “It was an accident.” Uttered barely above a whisper.

“I thought so. I must confess I was extremely concerned when I saw it on the news. I went to great lengths to keep the younger students from witnessing the scenes in London.”

“Why did you keep it from them?”

“Unfortunately I couldn’t stop everyone from watching, and word does spread.”

“That’s why they hate me.”

“Now that’s not true. Nobody hates you.”

John stood up. “They’re scared of me, though! They look at me like I’m gonna set them on fire just for looking!”

“John, they have a right to be scared. What I saw, I won’t mince words, it was horrific. Charred skeletons, burnt out homes, it was terrible. But I believe you can make amends. I believe you can learn control. And I know I am not the only one in this house that has faith in you.”

“Bobby.”

“Yes, among others, although I ought to mention that Bobby has not been told about the London incident.”

John stopped and took this in. Bobby wasn’t being kinder than everyone else, he just didn’t know how depraved John had become in his absence. 

“I don’t think I’ll tell him.”

Xavier looked at him sadly.

“Do you think that will make a difference? He will find out eventually, I’m sure. Nothing remains hidden in this house for long.”

“I know, I know. I’ll tell him sometime. But not too soon. I want him in my corner.” He needed Bobby right now.

“Very well. Until we next meet, I want you to try and remain as calm as you can in any circumstance. We’ll see if that helps keep the flames down, or if it just makes things worse.”

“Okay Professor, thanks.”

“You’re very welcome, John.”

John wandered down the corridors of the Institute, catching fleeting glances from people as they tried to ignore his existence. He’d felt like he didn’t belong here before, but now it was like he was an anti-mutant government official with the looks he was getting. 

“Hey John, what’s up?”

He was so shocked that someone was actually speaking to him that he didn’t even reply for a minute. Kitty giggled at him. John gathered himself.

“Hey.”

“You okay?”

“Um… why are you talking to me?”

The smile dropped. “I thought you might like some company. You looked kinda down. Doesn’t matter, if you wanted to be alone…”

She moved to walk off, but Pyro grabbed her arm. She gasped and his hand went through her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to… yeah. I just… I don’t mind company.”

She smiled again. “Great! What’s your next class?”

John pulled his folded timetable out of his pocket and smoothed it out on the wall. “Uh, I got… ethics. Hang on, that can’t be right, I had ethics earlier. Oh for Christ’s sake…”

Kitty looked over his shoulder. “Huh, the Professor’s given you a lot more ethics classes. You’re in my group, the older group and the younger group.”

“He said I’d have to catch up, but that takes the piss.”

“Yeah, oh well! We’d best get moving or we’re gonna be late. Don’t want that on your record as well as mass slaughter and mayhem.”

John grabbed her shoulder and this time she didn’t go insubstantial beneath his palm. Her pink cardigan was soft to the touch. “You know what I did?”

She looked confused. “Almost everyone knows, except some of the younger kids, and the Professor told us not to tell Bobby.”

“Yet you’re still talking to me. Aren’t you scared of me?”

“The Professor can read minds, he wouldn’t let anyone stay here if they didn’t deserve a second chance.”

John sighed. “The Professor thinks everyone deserves a second chance.”

Kitty’s smile was bright. “Don’t you?”

*~*~*~*~*

They were kissing. John tried desperately to ignore his best friend and girlfriend and focus on his book, but they were both making happy noises. Occasionally there was a brief break while Bobby re-iced his lips and Rogue applied another layer of lipstick, then the smooching resumed. John found it very difficult to be happy that they’d overcome an obstacle to minor pleasures, but he was trying his best to keep calm, like the Professor had asked.

“Mmm, Marie…”

John subtly climbed off of his bed and left the room, taking his book with him. He went to the rec room, trying to rein in his jealousy. It was infantile, he was fine.

He sat on the couch, not realising who was at the other end until it was too late. 

“I don’t know how you persuaded the Professor to let you back in after everything you’ve done.”

John set his book down in his lap. It was ‘The Jew of Malta’. Scott looked at it critically. “The Jew of Malta, huh? Marlowe. You’d know all about that, an outsider no matter who you’re with, a psychopath to the last, killing anyone who trusts you…”

John clenched his teeth together, tuning out Cyclops’ tirade. He knew that the guy was unhappy after the death of his girl, that he never liked John in the first place, probably due to his lack of shiney shoeiness. But still, the words stung. Knowing that this was what everyone was thinking about him, no matter how he tried…

When the curtain started smoking, John got up and left his book by Cyclops, who was still ranting. He walked down the corridor with no idea where he was going. 

“John!”

He stopped and turned to see who’d called him, spotting Kitty in the new guy’s doorway, seemingly mid-conversation. He strolled over, greeting them both. Kitty seemed even more bubbly than usual.

“John, you haven’t met Remy, have you?”

“No,” John said, glancing at the guy’s strange eyes. He nodded at him in acknowledgement. “What’s your power?”

Remy smirked knowingly and pulled a card from his pocket. The ace of spades. It glowed and the guy flung it down the corridor. A second later, the door exploded. John grinned wickedly. 

“That’s fucking awesome.”

Remy smiled. “Thank you.”

“You do know Summers was in there, right?”

As the smoke cleared, an angry voice rang out from the rec room. “I swear Gambit, you’re paying for that!”

Gambit grabbed both Kitty and John’s arms. “Come on, let’s get outta here.”

The three of them ran down the hall and down the stairs. When Remy ushered them out of the front door, John stopped. “Where are we going, exactly?”

“Gambit could use a drink. How ‘bout you?”

John paused. Xavier had suggested that alcohol might aggravate his powers, might make him more irrational, but he’d also said that John should remain calm. A couple of drinks might make him calm.

“Gambit!?!”

Cyclops’ voice echoed round the mansion. Remy gave up on free will and dragged John outside. “Come on John,” Kitty urged, “it’ll be fun!”

“Alright, I guess. If it’s just down the road and we don’t drink much.”

Remy nodded. “That’s right kiddo, just a quiet drink.”

*~*~*~*~*

“But it’s just… it’s just like…” John waved his hands about randomly and a tree shrivelled to charcoal, “you know… the rush of bein’ bad…”

“Mmm,” Remy nodded with a smile, rebalancing Kitty’s giggling form over one of his broad shoulders. “You like the freedom….”

“Yeah, yeah,” John nodded enthusiastically, almost tripping over an ornamental rock at the side of the path. “Magneto makes… made me feel like we were gonna like, rule the world. Like everythin’ was comin’ up mutant.” 

“What was he like in bed?” Kitty said, her voice muffled by Remy’s back. “You said you had sex.”

“Oh god, yeah, that was amazing,” John said, eyes becoming unfocused as he thought about it. The lawn near the gate began to smoke.

“Can’t say I wanna hear it, chere,” Remy said grinning. He slapped Kitty’s ass. “And you are a bad girl for asking.”

Kitty squealed. “You spanked me! I can’t believe you spanked me!”

John sniggered. “Kinky.” His legs were becoming increasingly unreliable. He blamed the shots. “Remy,” he slurred, falling against the Cajun, “you’re a dick.”

The older mutant put an arm around the pyrotechnic’s waist. “And why is that?”

“You bought me drinks an’ made me drunk. You’re a bad, bad man.”

“Hmm, I think dat is gonna be the general consensus.”

“Eh?”

John looked up once they’d reached the end of the path, only to see Professor X, Storm, Logan and Cyclops standing in the doorway, looking painfully sober in contrast to the three amused students.

“They made me do it!” Remy said.

*~*~*~*~*

John and Kitty had been sent to their rooms, but he’d gone to hers first, under the assumption that Rogue would still be in his room messing with Bobby. But since she was sleeping in her bed in the room she shared with Kitty, that was probably unlikely. They both sat on Kitty’s bed, shushing each other dramatically and laughing quietly as Kitty pushed John off of the bed.

“You’re makin’ too much noise.”

“Sssh.”

John grinned and pushed himself up to the side of the bed. “So what’s up with you an’ Remy?”

Kitty frowned in confusion. “I dunno what you mean.”

“You two were all over each other,” John grinned, trying to stop himself from sliding down the side of the bed. “Your blankets are too slidy.” 

“Slidy?”

“Yeah. So what d’you think of Remy?”

“I like him. He’s fun. You think he’s fun?”

“Yeah, I’d fuck ‘im.”

“What you gonna do about Bobby?”

“Huh?”

“Bobby, you said you like ‘im.” John put his hand over Kitty’s mouth and waved over at the sleeping Rogue.

“Oh, right, sorry.” Kitty hiccupped.

John shrugged. “S’cool, we can talk t’morrow. You sleep.”

Kitty nodded. “You sleep.”

John saluted. “Ma’am.” After a few failed tries, he got to his feet and stumbled out the door.

He made it down to his room pretty easily by keeping one hand on the wall at all times. He tripped through the door, but managed not to fall on his ass. 

“John?”

“Don’t put the lamp on,” John said, making a small unsteady fire in the palm of his hand. He preferred the way firelight played on the walls. He managed to lie on his bed without igniting the duvet.

“Are you drunk?” John glanced over at Bobby, who was watching him with narrowed eyes. 

John chuckled. He sat up and quenched the fire in the palm of his hand. The room was dark for a moment until his eyes adjusted, then he could see Bobby in the dim moonlight that came in through the window. He stood up unsteadily and weaved his way over to the bed, sitting down almost in Bobby’s lap. The other teen shuffled about uncomfortably.

“John, you okay?”

John nodded with a smile. He leant down so that his arms were either side of Bobby’s head and their faces were centimetres apart. He fancied he could see the shimmering frost in Bobby’s eyes. 

“I’m fine, Drake. How are you?”

“I’m okay. You’re really drunk, aren’t you?”

He couldn’t stop himself. He leaned in and pressed his lips to the other boy’s. When he pulled away, Bobby’s breath was cold and harsh against his face. 

“John…”

He felt he ought to explain himself. “I want you.”

“Um, John, you…”

“I want you to have me.” He saw the confusion in Bobby’s eyes. “It doesn’t have to mean anythin’, it could just be release, like. I know you still can’t touch her how you want to and you can like, use me and stuff, I don’t mind.”

Bobby pushed him back. “John, for fuck’s sake. Go to bed and sleep it off. You’re hammered.”

“Not as much as I’d like,” leered John. Bobby wasn’t impressed. John’s heart sank. “Can I sleep here?” 

Bobby must have seen something in his eyes because he sighed. “Alright. Just sleep.”

John smiled and lay down beside his crush, snuggling up to Bobby’s covered body. It was the closest he was likely to get, he might as well enjoy it.

But sleep came far too soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hot-Blooded**

  


Pyro moaned wantonly as Magneto ran his large hands over the teen’s skin. He felt so hot…

“Is this another experiment?”

Magneto chuckled and leant in for a gentle kiss. His hands never stopped moving around Pyro’s abdomen and erection.

“I must confess a curiosity that excels my usual scientific interest when it comes to you, Pyro.”

It took a moment for the words to penetrate the lusty haze, but the sentiment was quick to travel – he was wanted. Someone wanted him. Wanted to touch him as he was made to be touched, not desperate to touch someone with poison skin. A slow hand movement up the length of his cock made him thrust up with abandon into Magneto’s firm grip.

“But why… what are you trying to… ohhh…”

“To find out?”

Pyro answered with a frantic nod. Magneto smiled down at him and ran a hand through the recently bleached hair.

“We know this makes you hot. Now we want to know just how hot we can make you. I think I can raise your warmth to an inferno. I think I know what buttons to push to make you burn. Sweet thing, do you want to burn?”

Pyro let out a low groan and nodded again. He’d do anything for this man, this man who touched him so well and almost made him feel perfect. But only one person would ever – No. Not thinking about him, thinking about heat. Fire, not ice. Then Magneto pulled away and Bobby Drake lay down on top of him.

“Bobby?!? No… no, Mystique, of course, Mystique… bitch.”

‘Bobby’ put a hand over his mouth like he used to in arguments. And Pyro hadn’t stopped grinding upwards, into the toned thigh that looked like Bobby’s when he was in the showers after danger room practises and oh fucking god…

“Sssh John, it’s alright, I’m here. I’m right here baby.”

And Bobby had never sent the word ‘baby’ in his direction before, but it felt so right. And there were fingers prodding him that couldn’t possibly be that cold because they weren’t really Bobby’s fingers, they were Mystique’s and…

“John, please relax. Let me make you feel good. I want to make you feel good.”

And this was so much better than the wild freefalling of sex with Magneto because Bobby was so safe and Bobby would take good care of him and Bobby didn’t hate him after all, couldn’t possibly hate him because his dick was entering him right now and he actually felt whole rather than used.

He got hotter and hotter, but if anyone could take the heat it was Bobby, who’d always taken the heat away and helped him when the flames got out of control. He was going to come…

“John, I love you.”

John screamed and everything went white. The room was blazing and Mystique pulled away from him, all blue scales and mean eyes.

Later, once Magneto had remoulded the molten metal and they had their furniture back, he’d held John very tight. Like he needed. Not quite what he needed, but something like he needed. He’d whispered to him through the night about how special he was, how precious and valuable. He’d made promises that he would never be able to keep and even though John had known that very moment that he could not go on, he’d convinced himself that he was okay.

 

Bobby woke up half-hard with pins and needles in his arm from John’s dead weight. Not just pins and needles, but a burning sensation where his skin had been touching John’s overheated flesh. He tried to think that’s what friends were for, but he was extremely uncomfortable. He was about to shove John away when he noticed three things in surprisingly fast sequence.

1) John was sobbing in his sleep. He’d never seen John cry.

2) John had curled up against him as though he never wanted to let go.

3) John was erect in his boxer shorts. Very much so. There was a slight damp patch on the front. 

This all served to cause hesitation in Bobby. Mainly because he was confused. What kind of dream could make you sad and turned-on? It must be really screwed up. Would it be right to wake him? Would he rather stay sleeping?

So many questions and that was without thinking about what had occurred last night. John’s weird sluttish behaviour. Because that was what it was, sluttish. He’d thrown himself into Bobby’s bed and said those things about wanting Bobby to touch him. It was very strange. Suddenly his friend had been replaced with a weird wanting creature. 

But then, he had been very drunk. Very, very drunk. He’d been so wasted that he’d collapsed into Bobby’s bed fully clothed, leaving Bobby to strip his friend of his jeans. John’s skin was unsurprisingly hot, he remembered. 

“Just don’t…”

Bobby’s gaze was drawn quickly to John’s face, where the pain was evident. Bobby couldn’t help but brush a tear away as it ran down John’s face. He wanted to hurt whoever had caused this distress to John.

“M’neto…”

Of course. It would be that psychopathic megalomaniac who’d done this, wouldn’t it? Possible scenarios ran through Bobby’s mind – torture, verbal or physical abuse, sexual abuse? He felt ill at that thought, but it might explain the arousal. If John was revisiting the trauma and Magneto had forced him to get off on it… And he would have had to have forced him, wouldn’t he? John had never touched anyone in the X-Mansion, at least as far as Bobby was aware.

More tears. Bobby couldn’t take it anymore and he reached out and shook his friend’s shoulder. At first he was gentle, but it had no effect, so he shook him roughly. 

“John, wake up.”

Before he knew what was happening, he was shoved off of the bed brutally, almost getting winded from his fall to the floor. He looked up angrily, about to ask what the hell John thought he was doing, but his voice stuck in his throat when he saw the flameball being held a few inches from his face. He wondered if his hair was singed.

He glanced past the fire to see that John looked both terrified and furious. It was a clarifying moment – Bobby realised he didn’t know John anymore. 

“John,” he whispered, putting his hands up in surrender, “it’s me, Bobby. You’re safe, nobody’s going to hurt you. You came home, remember?”

John just looked confused and lost now. He looked around at the bedroom. While he was distracted, Bobby froze the fire. It fell to the floor and smashed. Doing it took a lot more out of him than it used to. John made no further move to attack him, just stared at the fragments of ice on the floor.

For a long time, neither of them said anything. Bobby stared at the strange pyromaniac sitting on his bed while John refused to meet his eyes. Even when he spoke.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, “I forgot where I was.”

“And you forgot who I was?”

“No, but, you know, Mystique can be anyone.”

“Even me?”

“She’s been you before.”

“What do you mean?” John didn’t answer and he still wouldn’t look at him. Bobby sighed and sat next to him on the bed. “John, if I ask you a question, will you answer it? Please? If I promise to only ask one question.”

John finally looked at him and after a while, nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Did they hurt you? Mystique and Magneto, I mean.”

John frowned and shook his head. “Not excessively.”

That hardly soothed Bobby’s concern. “Define excessive.”

John actually smirked. “Excessive is more than I asked for and less than I deserved.” This was really no answer at all and made Bobby even more worried.

“You don’t deserve to be hurt.”

“Don’t I?”

“You left, I know. But you came back. You’re back with the X-Men now.”

John stood up and stomped over to his bed, grabbing his lighter. Bobby got the feeling he’d said something wrong as John whirled round on him, eyes blazing in time with the flame from the Zippo. “It really is that black and white for you, isn’t it!”

“I don’t… what do you mean?”

John was clicking the flame on and off quicker than Bobby had ever seen. He’d thought that John would quit playing with lighters now that he had the fire within him, but apparently that wasn’t to be the case. The firelight flickering on his friend’s face made him look dangerous in their dim room with the curtains closed. It made him look crazy. It made him Pyro.

“I’m here, I’m good. I’m there, I’m bad. I don’t play with fire, I’m behaving. I let myself go once in a while, I’m being naughty. For fuck’s sake! Why can’t you people accept that I need this! I really fucking need this!” With that word, the flame from his lighter shot up to the ceiling then spiralled back down, surrounding John in a snake-like flame. Bobby watched mesmerised as John reached a hand out and stroked the flame. The thought came unbidden, just once he’d like John to look at him like that. Like he was the reason for everything.

Then the flame went away. Just died in his hands, as Bobby was considering icing it and watching John trapped by his ice. He shivered. John looked at him strangely.

“Professor’s calling me. I gotta go. Catch you later, alright?” Bobby nodded. As John reached the door though, he turned and looked back. “I’m sorry that I’m so fucked up right now. I’m gonna get it fixed. It’s all gonna be alright.”

Then he shut the door, leaving Bobby with the frozen flame by the bed as it melted into the floor.

*~*~*~*~*

“I heard that your roomie got a li’l tipsy last night,” Rogue drawled, sitting next to him at breakfast.

“Heard from who?”

“Kitty mentioned it this mornin’. She’s in a pretty bad way herself. Ain’t ya, sugah?”

Bobby followed her gaze to across the table, where Kitty was cradling her head in her hands. She looked up at them and said “gahgh.” Then she sipped some water. That was apparently all the communication they were getting.

“Was Johnny this bad?” Rogue asked with a smile and a possibly malicious gleam in her eye.

Bobby shrugged. “He was…friendly.”

If he’d been trying to get away from the topic subtly he clearly hadn’t succeeded, because Rogue’s eyes narrowed. “How friendly?”

“Just, you know, drunk male friendly,” Bobby said, hoping she wouldn’t ask him to elaborate. “Why?”

She looked away from him. “No reason, just wondered. I mean, he has only just got back from the Brotherhood, I thought he’d be finding it harder to fit in.”

“I don’t know. I think…” Bobby briefly considered the ethics of telling Rogue what was going on. Well, she was John’s friend too, she might be helpful. “…I think something happened to him in the Brotherhood. He’s really jumpy.”

“It’s probably just anxiety that Magneto’ll come and get him. I wouldn’t worry too much Bobby.” She checked her watch as people began rising from the breakfast table. “Damn.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out some lipstick, hastily applying it. Bobby knew what that meant. 

The kisses were weird. He didn’t know if that was weird good or weird bad yet. He didn’t honestly have that much experience to compare them to. There had been one girl back home and one girl a few months before Rogue arrived, and John…

John’s lips had been really hot and surprisingly soft.

“Bobby? You okay?”

He opened his eyes. The kiss had stopped and Rogue was staring at him. When had the kiss stopped? “I’m fine. I’ll see you later, yeah?” She nodded and left him stewing in anxiety. But it was probably okay that he hadn’t noticed the kiss ending. It didn’t mean anything, it was just because they had to be careful and the kisses were so light, barely there. Rogue felt things a lot more than most, it wasn’t a problem if sometimes he wasn’t as sensitive as she was. 

It would be nice though, if she felt like John had felt last night. If only he’d had a chance to talk to John about that this morning. Not that he knew what to say mind, ‘hey, you know you came onto me last night like a desperate prostitute, was that the alcohol or would you mind kissing me again?’ Then again, with the way John was acting at the moment Bobby really didn’t want to be responsible for putting anymore on his plate. 

“Bobby,” said the Professor as he wheeled through the otherwise abandoned dining area, “shouldn’t you be in Ororo’s class?”

Bobby jumped up from his seat, nearly tripping over in the process. “Crap!” Then he paused. “Professor?”

The bald man stopped and looked amused. “Yes Bobby?”

“You’re talking with John aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Is he okay?”

The Professor seemed hesitant to reply for once. “He will be Bobby. However I would ask you to be strong for him. Be there for him. It may be difficult at times, but John needs a friend right now. Kitty and Remy are making progress with him socially, I would ask you to remain close to him as you have before.”

“You mean before he left us to join the Brotherhood for reasons unknown.”

Xavier sighed. “I know you feel you had something to do with it. Have you spoken to him about why he left?”

“I did ask, but he’s pretty closed-up about it all. He said he left them because they were psychos though.”

Xavier pursed his lips. “Hmm. I think there’s more to it than that, but, never mind. You can’t expect him to come straight out with it. He still doesn’t feel he can trust us.”

“How can he not trust us?” Bobby asked, feeling hurt.

“Why should he? When have we ever given him reason to trust us?”

“Well, you gave him a home and an education.”

“He has never seen this as a home and he never asked for the education. But don’t worry Bobby,” he said with a smile, “we’ll get him back.”

“Did Magneto hurt him?”

Xavier’s smile vanished. “I don’t know for sure. I’m afraid that even if I did find out it wouldn’t be my place to tell you. I think you ought to look to John for answers to your questions.”

“I don’t want to upset him.”

“Bobby, he’s already upset. You’re handling it well. He told me about the incident earlier. He feels terrible about it.”

“He got scared, it was fine.”

“And what about yourself? Weren’t you scared?”

Bobby thought back to an hour ago. Remembered John’s lost look. “No, I wasn’t scared.”

“Why not? He must have been acting very different from what you expect.”

“So he’s a little messed up. He’s still John. I know he is. He has to be.”

Xavier rested a friendly hand on Bobby’s.

“I hope you’re right, for all our sakes.” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Hot-Blooded**

  


“Perhaps a redhead?”

Pyro grit his teeth as Jean Grey began toying with his flaccid cock. If his hands hadn’t been bound to the headboard, he would have shoved her off of him, despite the welcoming warmth of her false body.

“That’s sick ‘Stique, she’s supposed to be dead. At least stick to impersonating the living. Jesus.”

‘Jean’ frowned sternly, making John’s mind go back to days when he hadn’t done his homework. Naturally, none of this was seducing him.

“Maybe a goddess can tempt you,” murmured Storm’s luscious lips against the bare skin.

Pyro sniggered. “Maybe if you wanna be punishing me you should pretend to be Summers. Guy’s a dick, but I’d let him spank me with his ruler for not paying attention in class.”

Now it was Kitty. This was becoming tedious. “Nobody’s punishing you Pyro, this is a treat.” She began to suck him off. This did not feel at all right, nor did it feel like the right kind of wrong. It just felt strange. But he still felt it and he was hardening, a bit. 

The door opened and Mystique pulled back, reverting to her natural form in the presence of their boss. Magneto did not look very pleased. “I don’t believe I authorised any… experimentation of this kind while I was gone.” He raised a hand to stop Mystique’s words falling from her open blue lips. “I asked you to look after him.”

He moved closer to Pyro’s bound form with an emperor’s majesty and Pyro realised that there was something seriously fucked up about getting hard now when even a Storm-Jean-Kitty combo had left him bored. A hand moved down his body softly and teasingly, coming to a stop just at the base of his cock. Pyro stopped breathing. Magneto smiled down at him.

“You may go, Mystique. Leave a fire extinguisher outside the door, would you?”

Pyro didn’t notice her departure as his attention was entirely focused on Magneto’s undressing. Eventually the Master of Magnetism lay down beside him and a hand snaked its way down to Pyro’s erection. 

As Pyro’s head fell back and his eyes slipped shut, Magneto murmured in his ear, “last time I send that woman to do this man’s job.”

*

Kitty was waiting outside Xavier’s office for John. She’d just eaten half a piece of toast for breakfast and drunk three and a half glasses of water. She still felt gross. Alcohol was clearly not her friend. At that moment the only things she wanted more than to go back to bed and never wake up were Remy falling to his knees and professing eternal love and John telling her that he hadn’t completely blown his chances with Bobby last night. Because from the sounds of Bobby’s uneasy ‘he was friendly’ remark, John might have done something stupidly stupid.

A flame curled out from under the door. Oh god, John’s set fire to Xavier’s office. He’s melted the wheelchair and burned Xavier due to some telepathic trespassing and he was going to be kicked out of the school no matter how much Kitty defended him and her head hurt too badly to get up and ring the fire alarm. 

Then the flame was gone. One problem solved. After a couple of minutes John came out through the door, not looking any better than she felt. He had dark rings under his eyes and he looked pale, despite a slight flush of colour on his cheekbones. His hair was a mess. He was also wearing a shirt and boxer shorts. Kitty blushed and looked away.

John sat down beside her on the floor opposite Xavier’s office with his back against the wall. She slid down to join him. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

His voice was dry. He probably hadn’t drunk as much water as her. Neither of them said anything and Xavier came out of his office. He smiled at them and Kitty just knew it was because they were hungover and he wasn’t.

“You two don’t look very well. John, you’re excused from classes until this afternoon. Kitty, could you take care of him please?”

“Yes Professor, thanks.”

“That’s alright. But if I see either of you drunk and disorderly again it will be early morning danger room sessions and track runs.”

“Yes Professor,” they both mumbled.

“Good.” He wheeled off down the corridor, the far door briefly allowing them to hear the distant commotion of the school day.

“You want to go back to bed? You could probably get a few more hours sleep,” Kitty suggested gently as John put his head in his arms.

“Nah,” said the muffled voice, “I’d never get up.”

“What do you suppose they did to Gambit? And why do you think we got out of chores?”

John raised enough of his face so he could look at her through bloodshot eyes. “Dunno what they did to Gambit. We got out of trouble ‘cos if they punished you they’d have to punish me and I’m playing nice right now. They don’t want to ruin it.”

“But why punish Gambit then?”

“He’s a couple years older than us, isn’t he? Means he’s treated more like one of them than one of us. Even though he’s a student, he’s expected to behave.”

Kitty chuckled quietly at the thought of Remy behaving. “I do like him, you know. Even though my parents would have an aneurysm.”

John put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed gently. “I know you do. And he’d be mad to fall for anyone else.”

She smiled. Words somehow meant more coming from John because he didn’t care enough to lie, but he cared enough to say things carefully sometimes. Like Remy, he was different than most people she knew.

“When I was at breakfast, Bobby said something.” John’s hand froze on her shoulder and she hurried to reassure him. “Not a serious something, just Rogue asked him how you were after the alcohol and he just said friendly, that’s all. I just wondered what that meant, if it meant anything.” She was giving herself more of a headache.

John sighed, clearly debating on whether to say anything or not. “You know Kitty, I never quite understood why I’m suddenly your gossip gal-pal.”

It was said in a tone that could be mistaken for harsh if you didn’t know St John. But Kitty thought she kind of did, so she didn’t take it personally. She translated it as: ‘why do you want to know? Why have you befriended me instead of anyone else in this place?’ 

“I have friends here John, but they’re a bit…” boring, predictable, safe, stable, “annoying. I don’t have a best friend or anything. They haven’t even batted an eyelid that I’ve been hanging with you for yesterday and today. I don’t think they noticed I’m gone.” Her voice cracked at the end, but she took that as a sign that she hadn’t drank enough water after all.

John didn’t say anything for a while and they sat in silence. Then, “I fucking kissed him.”

Kitty knew her eyes must be huge right now, but she was having difficulty processing the shocking information along with the swearword. She didn’t generally hang out with swearers, but she knew she ought to get used to it. “You kissed him?”

“Yeah.” John took out a lighter and started flicking it back and forth, which was confusing since he didn’t need them anymore. It was probably a nervous thing.

“How did he take it?”

“He just blamed it on the drink and told me to sleep it off.”

She couldn’t decide if that was necessarily a bad reaction, considering the possible worse ones. “And this morning?”

John laughed bitterly then clutched at his left temple. “Fuck. I hate being hungover. No, this morning I tried to kill him. Welcome to the amazing world of the psycho-slut Pyro.”

Now Kitty decided to put her arm around him. Surprisingly, he leant against her, not rejecting the comfort like she’d expected him to. “Don’t call yourself that, I don’t like it. Why did you try to kill him?”

Silence for a while again. Kitty thought it through and eventually decided to take a risk for once and she spoke. “When I first got my powers, nightmares would force me to wake up in the kitchen instead of my room. I’d phase right through the floor. I was terrified that if I didn’t get my control together I’d wind up in the ground under the mansion. Never happened, like.”

John looked up at her. “Am I that obvious?”

“I just figured. Early morning sessions with Xavier tend to mean night-time issues.”

“Oh yeah, there are a lot of issues.”

Kitty wasn’t sure whether that was a conversation opportunity or a conversation closer. 

“What kind of issues… oh! Like you said last night?”

John’s face took on an expression of abject fear and Kitty wished to god she hadn’t said anything as he stared at her with hunted eyes like a flickering candle. “What did I say?”

“You said, oh darn it John, I’m sorry, I didn’t think…”

“Kitty,” his grip on her arm tightened, “what the hell did I say?”

“You said that… John you’re hurting me.” He let go, looking apologetic for a second then worried again. “You said that Magneto had liked you for lots of reasons, partly your fire, partly your…”

“…cock-sucking lips. Oh Jesus fucking Christ I remember that.” John bit down on his knuckles before beginning to play with his lighter at an even faster pace.

“You said other things but I’d really rather not repeat them. I feel bad enough for asking what Magneto was like in bed.” She could feel her face heat with the admission. John had told them that he’d slept with Magneto and Mystique, that he’d performed oral sex on Magneto, lots of facts that in the sober light of day were clearly too much information. No wonder Remy had been keen to change topic last night. He was no prude, he just had a higher alcohol tolerance and no desire to see John spill his heart out embarrassingly.

“Oh crap,” John whispered as the flame grew larger in his hand. He quickly shut off the lighter and the fire vanished.

“I thought you made it now?”

“Yeah, but I can control it easier if it comes from a lighter. Plus it’s kind of a habit, you know?”

“I have a cuddly dragon,” Kitty supplied helpfully to say she felt the need for material securities sometimes. John looked at her as though she was insane so she decided to move the topic again. “I think Bobby’s worried. He thinks something must have happened to you in the Brotherhood.”

“It did.”

“Something harmful.”

“The jury’s still out on that one.”

Now Kitty was confused. “But I thought you said you enjoyed the…stuff.”

“Sex, Kit Kat, the word is sex. And I think I did, but Xavier’s not so sure it was good for me. Thinks I’m all broken.”

“Are you?” Sometimes Kitty could hate herself for her lack of restraint.

“I don’t know. This place sure looks different now though. It feels kind of unreal. Sometimes it feels a little too real.”

Kitty knew that one day she’d know what the heck he was talking about, but at that moment in time she had difficulty understanding. “You want a glass of water? You sound thirsty.”

John nodded. “Sure.”

They clambered to their feet and went to the kitchen where Kitty poured him a glass of cold tap water and he drank it greedily. She watched. “Would you rather be here or there?”

“Right now?”

She nodded.

“There.” He must have seen her wounded look because he was quick to explain himself. “I didn’t have to give a shit there. Here, it’s all ‘Bobby might hate me’ and ‘I’ve got to get Kitty to make the moves on her man’ and I hate that shit. In the Brotherhood it was ‘sleep, kill, fuck, repeat.’ I know Magneto likes to put a fancy political face on it and maybe it’s something else for him, but for me that’s all the Brotherhood was.”

“But that doesn’t pay off,” Kitty said quietly. “In the end all you’d be left with is some hazy recollection of things you shouldn’t have done. If you care, and you make the effort, you can achieve so much more.”

John looked at her for a long moment. She held his fiery gaze. “You know Kitty, sometimes I think you don’t know shit outside of this sheltered school with it’s sentimental ideology and impractical philosophy.” 

She turned her back to him then, because it stung. A warm arm draped around her shoulders.

“But sometimes, like just then, you make a lot of sense.” She looked up surprised, glad that she hadn’t started to cry. John smiled at her wanly. “I just hope you take your own advice when it comes to being Gambit’s ‘chere’.”

She batted him on the arm playfully. He stretched and yawned. “You know, I think I might need that nap. I’ll catch you in lit class, okay?”

She nodded and watched him ascend the stairs. Everything was so messed up. She had gossiped about Bobby with Rogue on so many nights, with ‘oh my god, you think he likes me’s and ‘you should ask him’s and ‘oh my god I can’t’s. Now, she thought she might cry if she had to watch John sit through a Rogue and Bobby marriage. It was amazing how he could change your perspective. It was so sad that he might not get the relationship he so clearly needed.

Then and there, Kitty decided to throw caution to the wind. She would ask Remy out after dinner.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hot-Blooded**

  


Pyro was cornered. Cornered and unarmed. He’d left his Zippo in Magneto’s room, not expecting to need it while on his way to the bathroom. And what kind of evil megalomaniac doesn’t have an en-suite anyway? Unless he had an en-suite but didn’t want Pyro using and Jesus, could he get any further off topic?

“I told ya, didn’t I? The boss has always loved pretty things. I just knew flame-boy ‘ere would look fine under them baggy shirts.”

Pyro stepped back further, the cold tiles shocking to his spine and he realised there was nowhere to go. Toad and Sabretooth were practically drooling. 

“You know kid,” the big, shaggy Wolverine-wannabe said conversationally as he stepped closer, “you might as well get this over with. Magneto’s only gonna hand you over to us eventually anyway.”

Pyro shuddered as Toad leapt closer to him. “Yeah, Quicksilver was boostin’ team morale for a while, and he’s the boss’ bloody son!” Toad licked a fly off of the wall before continuing, “shame I didn’t get a taste.”

“Does it matter? We got ourselves a little fire-boy to play with. I bet he’s all ready from the boss’ room.”

As they stepped closer again, breathing the same stinking air now, Pyro found his voice. “You guys do know what Magneto’ll do to you if he finds out about this, don’t you? He’ll kill you. He will so kill you.”

Sabretooth’s large hand dug into his exposed belly and tugged him up against the brawny thug. “Nah, there’s a hierarchy. We don’t need toys to do tricks. We’re better than you.”

God he wished he could make the fire, as Sabretooth dug his teeth into his shoulder and Toad cackled in the background of the Brotherhood bathroom.

Then, he noticed the screws in the mirror turning. Toad followed his eyes to the wall.

“Uh, Sabertooth, mate?”

“What?” growled the rugged man, frustrated at the interruption. He released his hold on Pyro immediately, seeing Magneto’s unforgiving form in the doorway.

Their leader stepped calmly over the threshold. No helmet or cape, just wearing his dark pyjamas that were too expensive to even look like nightwear. He held out his hand and the lighter hovered over to Pyro.

“There is a hierarchy, gentlemen, you are correct. I am your king.”

Toad couldn’t help the interjection. “Does that make ‘im our Queen?”

He was silenced by Magneto’s scathing glare. “Mystique is your queen. Pyro is my favoured knight. Knights were not the stalwart heroes that many believed them to be. They were ruthless defenders of the crown and more importantly, of their own honour.” He smiled at Pyro. “I will see you shortly, young knight.” Then he left the room.

Pyro’s eyes lit up with unholy malice as he ignited the lighter.

Shortly after the screaming was done he returned to the bedroom he shared with Magneto. He crawled into the large bed, climbing over Mystique so he was lying in between them. Magneto kissed him softly and Mystique’s hand trailed patterns over his naked chest.

“You know Lancelot ran off with Guinevere, right?”

Magneto chuckled. “Only because he couldn’t get Arthur, my boy.”

Pyro knew he’d fallen asleep with a smile, between two notorious mutant terrorists.

*

He woke up late again, but couldn’t feel too angry at himself because hey, quiet dreams meant no fire. It was odd the things you grew to appreciate in mutant mansion. 

He forced himself upright. His hangover had pretty much vanished too, thank god. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to go and see the Professor, even though he’d missed the classes he’d been supposed to attend. As though he needed all those ethics lessons. Like extra debates on euthanasia and abortion would stop him going back to… to…

That’s odd. Lost his train of thought.

John shook his head and got dressed. As fun as it had been to mope around the mansion in his boxers that morning, it might not be a good idea to turn up fashionably late for dinner in his underwear. People already doubted his sanity and it wouldn’t do him any favours. Of course it might get Bobby’s attention.

John sighed and slumped back down on his bed. He’d really messed things up with Bobby. The Iceman’s reaction to that drunken kiss was more than enough proof that he was not wanted… for…

It happened again! One minute he was thinking something, and then it just slipped away. Maybe he was still spaced out from the night before. 

Angry at his mental deterioration, John slammed the door as he went out of the room. It wasn’t good that he was going senile at such a young age. At this rate, wouldn’t be able to turn on a lighter at thirty.

As he entered the dining room, Kitty waved him over to a spare chair beside her. She was sitting across from Bobby and Rogue. 

He walked over and lowered himself into his seat, completely unprepared for the horror that was about to ensue.

“I was wondering where you were,” Kitty said too chirpily before kissing him on the cheek. Kissing him. So far to the side of the cheek that it was almost on the edge of his mouth! Before he could panic like an idiot, she leant in and whispered in his ear, “please play along and I’ll explain later. I’ll buy you a new lighter, anything. Please?”

This was new and freaky, but John accepted that Kitty had so far been more of a friend than he really deserved. So, he put his arm around her shoulders and smiled in what he had been told was a charming fashion. “Thanks for saving me a seat, Kitty-Kat.”

She smiled sweetly and went back to picking at her meal in demure girl style. John reached over the table and snagged a piece of Bobby’s bread. “Hey Snowflake, mind if I borrow your notes from today?”

He studiously ignored the fact that both Bobby and Rogue were staring at him like he was an alien from a galaxy far, far away. Bobby shrugged. “I guess, as long as you stop calling me Snowflake. You make me sound like some lame-assed DC female sidekick.”

“Hey,” Rogue cut in, “why does it have to be a lame-assed woman?”

“No guy would ever call himself Snowflake,” Bobby said.

“No?”

“No.”

Rogue leant her elbow on the table and got up close to his face in what she probably thought was a sassy ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ way. “Bobby Drake, you are such a sexist!”

“What? How am I a sexist?” Bobby asked, and then finished the argument with a breathtakingly fast kiss to Rogue’s lips.

John stared. He continued staring after they’d resumed eating. Instead of the usual irrepressible envy and hatred he felt when he saw them kissing, there had been nothing. He felt calm.

Was he maturing? It would explain the senility.

A gentle hand down his cheek startled him out of his musings. “Johnny? You okay?”

He turned his head, not dislodging her hand. “Yeah Kitty, I’m great.”

“So, you oversleep?”

John could see Bobby staring out the corner of his eye. He leant over to Kitty. “Is this to get Remy jealous or something?” he whispered.

“Maybe,” she said with a cheeky smile. “We’ll go somewhere private after dinner, okay?” To them, that meant they would discuss what was going on. To any casual observer, it would look like John had just suggested something ‘private’. 

It was a good job he didn’t have a chance with Bobby, otherwise he’d be so pissed off at Kitty right now. It was clear from the looks that Iceman and Rogue were giving him that they hadn’t been clued in on the false dating thing, and they’d assumed that this was a new development they hadn’t been told about. If life in the mansion continued like this, he was never going to see any cock. He could always ask Colossus, the rumours had been rife about him recently and there was no way someone that big could be under-endowed. Did it go metal? That could be rough, but something John had a bit of experience with. After all, Magneto had… had…

This was getting ridiculous now, what the hell was wrong with him?

John glanced up from his meal and caught Xavier’s eye. Oh no. He wouldn’t…

Wouldn’t… what? 

John shook his head again and stood up from the table. “Kitty, can I meet you in my room in a bit? I’m still not feeling a hundred percent.” He kissed her on the head, performing this boyfriend shit better than he thought he could. She smiled and waved as he went up to his bedroom.

He opened the drawer that everyone had at the bottom of their beds. That was where he’d stuck the stuff he’d returned with. Some CDs and DVDs, some clothes that he wouldn’t wear around here (Xavier wasn’t the only one into kinky uniforms), a laptop, some pills that he hadn’t taken for a while, and… there it was.

John pulled the sticky plastic cover off of the small square of metal. There were little spikes on it. He hated doing this.

Trying to brush as much of his blond hair to the side as possible, John took a deep breath and stabbed the thing into the back of his head. Aside from a hiss, he made no noise at the pain. The initial stab soon felt like a faint throbbing. He ruffled his hair, gasping as it caught the metal, and then went to his wardrobe mirror. He grabbed one of Bobby’s small mirrors from the other boy’s desk so that he could reflect them off each other and see the back of his head. The metal couldn’t be seen. Brilliant.

Now he could remember his thoughts. He’d thought about Magneto, his unrequited love for Bobby and fuck he hated Rogue so much that if she kissed Bobby in front of him again she’d burn in a thousand hells, starting with this one.

Soon there was a timid knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Kitty phased through it. She sat on his bed and John could see she lacked all the cheer she’d displayed at dinner.

“I’m really sorry John. It’s just, I caught him flirting with Rogue before dinner. He was all charming and Cajun and he gave her a card and it was the same card he gave me! I’ve never felt so played!”

“You want played?” John said, making sure he had her attention. She looked at him and when she saw how serious he looked, her expression turned concerned.

“What’s happened, John?”

He took a deep breath.

“Xavier’s been altering my thoughts.”


	7. Chapter 7

Hot-Blooded

“Control is such a meaningless term,” Magneto said condescendingly, standing up from his desk and walking round to the armchair Pyro had sat in. “You’ll have to be more specific dear.”

“I want to be able to make the fire do what I want again. It’s like I have no power over it any more.”

“I wouldn’t say that at all,” Magneto murmured, his thumb rubbing circles on Pyro’s neck. “You have evolved, Pyro. Remember the incident in Boston that you told me about? You said you threw fireballs. If those foolish humans attacked you now, what do you suppose would happen?”

Pyro shrugged, although he had a good idea.

“You would obliterate them. Fire would rise and you would melt the flesh from their bones. Now are you honestly saying to me that you would prefer the meagre tricks of before?”

“No, but I liked to feel in control.”

Magneto sighed. “There we go again with that silly word control. My boy, you never wanted control.” The older man went back around the desk and sat in his chair, pushing it back so there was more space between them. “Come here.”

Pyro did as he was told, approaching his boss slowly. 

“Undress.”

Pyro’s eyes widened and he glanced towards the unlocked door of Magneto’s office. Anybody could walk in.

“Don’t be shy, strip for me. I want to see you.” The desire in Magneto’s tone was enough to remove Pyro’s nerves. The teen unbuttoned his shirt, not quickly or slowly, just normally. He kicked off his shoes then started undoing his black trousers. Once he was just in his boxers, Magneto beckoned him closer. As if he was a puppet, he moved nearer, only for Magneto to tug him down into his lap. Before he could protest, Magneto’s lips were moving again his ear.

“Darling, you’ve never wanted control. A hand cupped him through his boxers then began to stroke him gently. “With control comes responsibility and nobody wants that, especially not you.” The touch felt fantastic, even through his flimsy boxer material. “The only control you’ll ever truly appreciate is the firm hand of your master.” Pyro nodded, not sure if he was supposed to be agreeing or not. A hand reached round and started to play with his new nipple piercing. “You only want control so you can give it up. You like to burn things, safe in the knowledge that someone is there to put them out, to calm you down, to hold you.” Magneto’s hand sped up and Pyro moaned as he buried his face into the older mutant’s neck. “Well I’m here, little one. I will take good care of you.” The hand that had been mercilessly playing with his piercing drifted down, slipping under the waistband of his pants. “You can lose control with me.”

On that note, a finger was pushed into his ass. Pyro cried out with pleasure as he came in his boxers, shaking in Magneto’s lap. Predictably, the bookshelf caught on fire as flames erupted around the room.

“Oh god, oh god,” Pyro said, still catching his breath as he came down from his orgasmic high. “I’m sorry, I…” he was silenced by a finger on his lips.

“Ssh, what did I just say? I will take care of things.” Magneto slipped out from underneath Pyro. “You just relax there until you regain control of yourself.” He smirked down at the shivering teen.

With a wave of his hand, the water pipes around the ceiling broke and poured cold liquid onto the flames. Once the fire was extinguished, Magneto knelt before him and placed a hand on his knee.

“I would never be foolish enough to try and tame you, Pyro. I will only help you direct your rage against those that would. You must understand that your fire will never be vanquished, only suppressed, which would be dangerous. It is pointless for you to try and exercise control. You have to trust me. I will be your control.”

“John, wake up, damn it!”

John woke up. “Huh, what?” He scrambled upright. He’d fallen asleep with his head on Kitty’s lap after discussing the Xavier Conspiracy. He would normally be confused at the massive amounts of sleep he’d had over the past day, but he was beginning to think that the previous doze had been fucked with by Xavier, and that psychic probing had taken all the rest out of it.

“John, what did you do?”

Kitty’s squealing was hurting his ears, but it was justified. The room was on fire. Not like last time, more like the start of the London Incident. Shit.

John stretched his hands out and tried to absorb the flame back into himself. Nothing. If anything, it grew larger and more out of control.

“Kitty, phase out of here!”

“You’re coming with me!”

“No, I won’t burn, it’s not worth the hassle!”

“You thought you could take the fire in too, but you can’t! I don’t trust your powers right now, John!” She grabbed his arm and they both ran through the wall. It felt really strange. If it was his power, John didn’t think he’d be able to use it without puking. 

The fire alarms were going off now and students were running down the halls, the older ones herding the younger children towards the garden.

“Get ready to land,” Kitty said. Before John could figure out what she meant, she’d phased them again – this time through the floor. They landed with a thump on the sofa.

“Lucky,” John muttered as they got up and jogged to the front door.

Kitty batted his arm. “Luck had nothing to do with it, flame-boy.”

They reached the outside and sat on the grass, watching as students piled out of the mansion. Storm flew up to John and Bobby’s bedroom window, unlatched it and sent a blizzard in to clear her way.

“She doesn’t even need me there. I feel so unimportant,” Bobby said jokingly, appearing beside them and sitting on the grass. 

“Setting the place on fire makes me feel important,” John retorted sarcastically.

“So it was you then?”

John sighed. “Yeah. Another accident. I’m beginning to think I’d be better off not sleeping.”

“Nightmares?” Bobby asked.

“I don’t know. Just weird dreams.”

Kitty stood up and brushed herself off. “Where’s Rogue, Bobby?”

“Huh? Oh, she’s over there talking to Gambit.”

Kitty’s face fell briefly before she regained her composure. “Well, I guess I’ll go and say hi,” she said, marching away as if she was going into battle. Good for her.

“So… you and Kitty, huh?”

“Nuh.”

“Huh?”

“No me and Kitty. Keep it to yourself though, I’m not sure she wants people to know.” John looked over to see Kitty sitting down between Rogue and Gambit. The kitten was definitely getting claws.

“So, it’s a phoney relationship?” 

John smiled. He wasn’t sure he’d heard anyone actually use the word phoney in conversation before. “Yeah, she wants Gambit.”

“Gambit wants Rogue.” Bobby’s lips pressed tightly together and his eyebrows drew close. That was the nearest Iceman ever got to a murderous look. It kind of just made him look sulky.

“But Rogue wants you, right?” She’d be a fool not to, he nearly added.

“I think so.”

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“Who understands girls, man?” Bobby said with a smile, not doing a good job of hiding the fact that he had no idea whether his girlfriend still cared for him or not. 

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“She might say no!”

“Uh, I think that’s the pre-dating conversation. Once you’re dating you’re supposed to be able to assume they want you.”

Bobby shrugged. “I don’t know.” There was an awkward silence. “So, fiery dreams then. That sucks.”

“Yep.”

“Strange, you didn’t have one when you were sleeping in my bed. I mean, the room wasn’t on fire.”

Which was an interesting way of bringing up the previous night.

“I’m really sorry about that shit, Bobby. I was so drunk…”

Bobby hurried to reassure him. “Oh no, no, it’s fine. I figured that, you know? You were really… yeah.”

Just then, a shadow appeared on the grass they were picking at. The boys looked up to see Scott pushing Xavier’s chair.

“John, could I have a word?”

He panicked and quickly grabbed Bobby’s sleeve. “Can Bobby come too?”

“If he wants.”

Bobby was looking at him like he was crazy, but he must have sensed John’s fear because he nodded even as he pried the singed fingers from his nice blue sleeve. 

“John, relax, I’ll come with you. Although I don’t see what the big deal is.”

He didn’t see what the big deal was. Of course he didn’t. He wasn’t the one hiding his thoughts from Xavier using Brotherhood tech and setting fire to the mansion. No, he was perfect Bobby Drake, Iceman, Scott Summers the Second. The worst thing he’d ever done was cause too much ice build-up in the freezer, for fuck’s sake.

As the door shut behind them to the rest of the mansion, John realised he’d made a mistake in bringing Bobby. He’d done it to have someone on his side, but standing in the midst of the mahogany furnishings with all eyes focused on him, he realised he’d just brought Xavier another puppet. One that held his burning heart.

“Well John, do you have anything to say?”

John looked around the room, then at his feet, then back at Xavier.

“Fuck.”


	8. Chapter 8

Pyro was frozen with fear as he stared up at the huge robot. What were they called again? Sentinels, that was it. Maybe if he stayed very still it wouldn’t see him.   
  
A red beam slid down his forehead before resting at his chest. Oh god. There were metal elements in them, weren’t there? Where the hell was Magneto? The Master of Magnetism could handle this easily and he’d promised to take care of him, he’d fucking promised!   
  
Pyro barely even breathed as the hulking great sentinel thing stared at him with its cyber eyes. Magneto would be here any second now…   
  
“Mutant Gene CONFIRMED”   
  
He’d been abandoned…   
  
“Proceed with TERMINATION”   
  
The sentinel raised one huge foot, prepared to crush Pyro like an insect, which made him recall a certain someone’s words with crystal clarity… ‘you are a God’. And that was before he could create the flame, back when he was just a Prometheus with borrowed fire. Now…   
  
The force of the explosion knocked the sentinel backwards. He didn’t stop the burning.   
  
In less than a minute, the machine was melting to the pavement. He didn’t stop the burning.   
  
The soldiers started futilely running from the wave of fire. He still didn’t stop the burning.   
  
Homes caught ablaze. He tried to stop the burning.   
  
Children in the park started screaming. He couldn’t stop the burning!   
  
  
Xavier took a deep breath as he relinquished that horrific mental landscape. Nobody John’s age should have to suffer so much. Yet the boy was determined to keep all his thoughts, good and bad. It was a brave decision, but a foolhardy one.   
  
The Professor observed the boy before him. Somehow he was blocking telepathic interference, although his thoughts were still available in a read-only form, as it were.   
  
“Did Magneto give you whatever it is you are using, John?”   
  
Bobby and Scott looked confused. John met his gaze and nodded. “Yeah.”   
  
“What is it, exactly?”   
  
“A metal thing. Sticks to my neck. Keeps you out of my head. I don’t know how, so don’t ask me.”   
  
“Magneto could have sabotaged the Institute with any number of things in your possession. It is unwise to use his presents so freely around here. Bombs, cameras… I would like to think Erik would not go that far, but it is never safe to presume.”   
  
“So you want it.”   
  
“You may keep it on for now, if it makes you feel safer. Although I am hurt that you do not trust me to respect the sanctity of your mind.”   
  
John almost snarled at him. “Sanctity, my ass! You’ve been fucking with my mind all day!”   
  
“I’ve been keeping you calm.”   
  
“What are you talking about?”   
  
“Do you smell burning, John?”   
  
“Wha… oh shit!” John began waving his hands at the bottom of his trousers to try and quell the flames. It didn’t work. It was a good job Bobby had joined them here really, or there could have been a situation.   
  
“You have successfully demonstrated my point, John.”   
  
“Which is?” the teen asked angrily.   
  
“You are out of control.”   
  
John visibly paled and he shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I can control it. I…” he met Xavier’s eyes with a look of heartbreaking desperation. “I’m losing it, aren’t I?”   
  
“You’ve suffered a lot, John. Nobody thinks any less of you for your struggles. I did not erase thoughts, I merely pushed them back so you could deal with them at a time when you felt more stable. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but your flames appear to be growing more responsive to your emotional states. That is why you can no longer extinguish them. They appear as a manifestation of anger or lust…” * _John moaned loudly and kicked the sheets away, his erection straining as he writhed helplessly, sweating on his bed_ * Xavier kept his expression blank as Bobby’s sexually charged thoughts were broadcast around the room. “Then the fear you feel at your own power keeps the flames growing.”   
  
John sat down in the chair next to Bobby. “This sucks.”    
  
Bobby put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and looked to the Professor imploringly. “There’s got to be something you can do, right?”   
  
“I was trying.”   
  
“So the only way you can stop me burning everything up is by giving me a psychic lobotomy? Great.”   
  
“I would only intercept thoughts that provoked a strong negative response.”   
  
“But lust? That’s not a negative.”   
  
* _Bobby had told him to sleep but John was drunk and stubborn and his hot hands were moving under Bobby’s t-shirt_ * Again Xavier ignored Bobby’s little fantasies, although he did look long enough to realise that these were barely suppressed desires on their way to the fore of the mind. God, that was all they needed, John in a sexual situation. The mansion would be ashes in minutes. Xavier gently pushed the fantasies back again.   
  
“For now, we will treat lust as a negative.” Another gentle push to Bobby’s curious mind. Honestly, teen boys. Just mentioning the word lust in relation to John was inspiring Bobby’s imagination. “Once you have sufficient training I’m sure we can allow you free reign over your faculties again.”   
  
“You’re acting like my brain is a computer that you’re gonna password protect!” John said, clearly getting worked up again.   
  
“Now John, it’s not like that. It wouldn’t even be the first time this has been necessary. I have done this before, for an extremely powerful mutant who was unable to reign in her darker impulses. She submitted to the same treatment.”   
  
“What happened to her?”   
  
“She was one of my best students and a fine young woman.”   
  
“Past tense?”   
  
Xavier sighed. “I’m afraid she is no longer with us.”   
  
“Excuse me Professor,” Scott said, leaving the room in a hurry. He still couldn’t bear to hear anything about his ex-girlfriend.   
  
John and Bobby watched him go, putting two and two together. “Jean?” Bobby asked disbelievingly. “Jean had similar problems?”   
  
“Oh yes, to an even larger degree. Her power was unfathomable. She too, was tortured by her gifts.”   
  
“But I’m not tortured by my power,” John said. “Yeah, it does get a bit out of hand, but I…” he trailed off and shrugged.   
  
Xavier knew what John wanted to say, he could sense the thoughts of fire. John enjoyed the chaos. He liked the rush of destruction and in a perverse way the boy was positively high on the loss of control he was currently experiencing. That was why it was tearing him apart so much. He wanted to appear capable and cool, but he loved showing everyone what he could do in temporary fits of insanity.    
  
“John, you are going to have to make a decision. Either you let me help you…”   
  
“Or?”   
  
“Or you will have to be put someplace where you cannot harm anyone.”   
  
It surprised Xavier that John did not loudly object. The boy just nodded with a sigh, as though he knew it was necessary.   
  
John’s hand went round the back of his neck and with one swift movement he had yanked out the small piece of metal. Then, “I don’t have any diseases, I swear,” he quickly slapped his hand to the back of Bobby’s neck, making the other mutant cry out with pain and alarm.   
  
“What the hell did you do that for, John?!?”   
  
“So we know one of us will remember this conversation!” And that stung Charles to the very core, that one of his students could be so paranoid about him. “Bobby, please leave it in. He can’t argue with it, he has no legitimate reason to want in your brain.”   
  
The two teens shared a long look. Eventually Bobby nodded, though he looked distinctly unenthusiastic. “Fine, I’ll guard my thoughts with my life,” he muttered sarcastically.   
  
John looked like he would hug his friend for a moment before he turned to Xavier.    
  
“Right then, on with the brain drain.”   
  
It was only once Xavier had begun sifting through the young mans mind that he posed an important question to himself - if you take away all the anger, what is left of St John Allerdyce?


	9. Chapter 9

On reflection, Pyro shouldn’t have shouted at Magneto. It was bound to end in tears. He wished his hands weren’t cuffed so he could brush away the traitorous drops that escaped his eyes, as much as he wished his tears would move the angry man standing before him.   
  
“Don’t cry, Pyro. You are receiving nothing more than you deserve.”   
  
“I know,” he gasped. “I’m sorry.”   
  
“But what are you sorry for?” Magneto asked.   
  
There was another lash from the whip. Mystique was probably getting off on playing dominatrix. The pain distracted him from the easy way she wore Rogue’s skin. Even though he knew at heart that it wasn’t the man-stealing bitch-whore from hell, it still amplified the shame to seemingly be at her mercy.   
  
“I’m sorry I didn’t smash more sentinels?” He knew he sounded questioning, but he was honestly at a loss as to what he was apologising for.   
  
Another series of lashes with Rogue’s voice moaning at the patterns she’d made on his abdomen. She’d concentrated mostly there, narrowly missing his cock at some points. The pain was not enough to stop him being slightly aroused. In fact, he thought the pain might be the cause of that arousal.   
  
She stopped hitting him when Magneto raised a hand. “You destroyed all the sentinels that were present, Pyro. Please give some thought to your answers. What are you sorry for?”   
  
One solitary lash made his breath catch from the surprise. Then there was silence, but for their heavy breathing. They looked at him expectantly. They were giving him thinking time.   
  
“Shouting at you.” Obviously the man would be petty enough to hurt Pyro over a perceived ingratitude. He probably had a right to, except he had left him at the mercy of those fucking robots.   
  
“No.” ’Rogue’ raised the whip, but Magneto stilled her hand. “Leave us.”   
  
She winked at him with her southern belle eyes as she left. Only her obvious disappointment at being kicked out was what kept Pyro from cursing her down to hell.   
  
Then he saw the knife in Magneto’s hands. His stomach churned. He didn’t want to die. Life was a bit much at the moment, yeah, but he was okay with it for the most part. He was still waiting for something to come along, although he didn’t quite know what it was, and if he died now he’d miss it.   
  
“You don’t realise what it is you have done.”   
  
As the knife hurtled towards his chest, Pyro took a breath and savoured the air.    
  
There was pain, although not as much as he’d expected. He looked down and saw that only the tip of the knife’s blade was in his chest. It was drawing blood, just where he figured his heart was. Then the knife started to move upwards, effortlessly cutting a stinging path up his skin towards his collarbone.   
  
“You thought I had abandoned you.”   
  
He found enough of his voice to say ‘no’ as the knife pulled out and began moving in a line diagonally from where it had stopped. Magneto was writing something, although it might not be clear with the way he was bleeding.   
  
“You did. That is what you screamed at me. You said ‘you left me to die’. You think I am capable of neglecting you in that way.”   
  
The knife paused when it had made a slanting line about half as long as the perpendicular one. It then began moving upwards in a line symmetrical to the second.   
  
“I knew what you were capable of. I have told you how powerful you are, but you had to witness it for yourself. I can keep you under control, but your control had to be shaken to show you how strong you are. Do you see now, what I was telling you?”   
  
The knife had started moving down to finish the pattern. It was an ‘M’. Major surprise there. He was doing some serious bleeding now.   
  
“Mystique and I can rule mutant kind as its true leaders. But you my boy, you are our weapon. You belong to me. I can give you what you crave, both the lack of control and the illusion of control. Never accuse me again of failing you.”   
  
The knife drew back to Magneto’s palm. He stepped closer and ran his fingers over the blood. Then he smeared his fingers over Pyro’s lips, making them bloody. He prodded the wound again, colouring his fingertips crimson. This time the blood was smudged down Pyro’s neck.    
  
The look in Magneto’s eyes was intense lust and could it be… awe?   
  
“It’s just as well blood suits you.”   
  
  
“Rogue! Come on Rogue, you’re scaring me!”   
  
Her eyes shot open and she quickly shuffled further back in the bed, away from whoever was there. After a second of waking up, she realised that it was Kitty. The girl was in her pyjamas, staring at her with frightened eyes.   
  
“Uh, you okay Rogue? It’s just you seemed to be having a bad dream.”   
  
“Bad dream is right,” Rogue said quietly, drawing her knees up to her chin under the blanket.   
  
Kitty sat down on the end of her bed. “You wanna talk about it?”   
  
“It wasn’t one of mine,” Rogue said, shaking her head.   
  
“Oh.” Kitty stood up and stretched. Rogue had explained to her many times before that no matter how bad the dream had been, she didn’t like to talk about other people’s memories. It just didn’t feel right, trespassing in their head and then telling their secrets. It made her glad she wasn’t a psychic because she hated looking around a room and knowing what people knew. She felt like more of a collective than an individual.   
  
“I think… I think it might have been John’s.” Kitty stopped moving. “I touched him last month when the Brotherhood attacked that protest.”   
  
“What was the dream about?”   
  
“Kitty, you know I won’t tell you. It’s John’s place to say anything.”   
  
“But Rogue,” the girl wrung her hands anxiously, “his dreams are the cause of all the fires! I’m worried about him. If you know something…” she looked so sad that Rogue couldn’t keep it in.   
  
“Magneto was hurting him. I don’t know if it happened a lot ‘cos normally my John dreams are just fire, but this was some seriously dark stuff.”   
  
“How dark?” Kitty asked. She was frowning now, like she thought she knew something else that wasn’t adding up right.   
  
“John was chained up and Mystique was whipping him. Magneto cut his initials into John’s chest with a knife.”   
  
Kitty put her hand to her mouth and her chest heaved for a moment. “He cut his initials into him?”   
  
“Yeah. And there was something else about Mystique…”   
  
“What?”   
  
“I…” Rogue stopped. Kitty wouldn’t be able to help. “Never mind. I’m gonna talk to John about it.” She got out of bed and opened her wardrobe.   
  
“I thought you didn’t ask people about the memories you took? I thought it was like, one of your rules.”   
  
Rogue shrugged as she fished out a pair of jeans and a red sleeveless t-shirt. “Normally yeah, but this is different.”   
  
“Because he got hurt?”   
  
“No.” If that was the case she would have spoken to Logan in depth about his trauma. “It’s not something I want to talk about.”   
  
“Was it…” Kitty hesitated uncomfortably, “sexual stuff?”   
  
Rogue paused in putting on her sock. Magneto had looked interested, but that had been the only explicit evidence. Still somehow she knew that Kitty had hit a point. The atmosphere had been sexually charged and for some reason she knew that the people in that room were sexually intimate. “Why do you ask?”   
  
Kitty bit her lip nervously. “Never mind, it’s not important.” She was an awful liar.   
  
Rogue finished dressing while Kitty went and showered. She rushed a brush through her hair then walked to John and Bobby’s room.    
  
She wasn’t surprised when her boyfriend answered the door after the second knock. Bobby was always the first up and about in the mornings. She pecked him on the cheek as firmly as she dared and tried to ignore his wince.   
  
“Hey sugar, is John up?”   
  
He stared at her for a while. “Um, no, why?”   
  
“I needed to talk to him about something.”   
  
“He’s sleeping real peacefully. I’d rather not wake him.” Bobby opened the door wider and stepped to the side so Rogue could see John sleeping. “He normally doesn’t get this much sleep without waking up screaming - oh crap I shouldn’t have said that. You won’t say anything to him, will you?”   
  
“I saw his dreams.”   
  
It seemed like the easiest way to reassure Bobby that he hadn’t just compromised John’s privacy, but it didn’t get a reaction that pleased her. Bobby looked at her almost angrily. “What do you mean you saw his dreams?”   
  
“I touched him at the protest last month. I just had the creepiest nightmare and I think it was one of his, that’s all.” She felt very defensive all of a sudden.   
  
“That’s all? Don’t you realise how John will feel about that? Oh wait, it might be okay actually since… hmm. You want me to wake him up?”   
  
“Nah, that’s okay.” Bobby was acting weird. “Just tell him when he wakes up that I need to speak to him. Unless you’re coming to brunch with me now, that is.”   
  
Bobby shook his head. He wasn’t looking at her anymore, he was looking at John who was as still as a corpse. “I promised the Professor I’d keep an eye on John.”   
  
“Why? Because of the fires?”   
  
Bobby looked uneasy. “Yeah, because of the fires.”   
  
He was an awful liar too. Rogue sighed and went down to brunch alone. On Saturdays and Sundays the mansion served brunch as well as breakfast, to provide an alternative for lazy students. It normally consisted of leftover breakfast and whatever they had left of the weekday meals. As mansion cuisine went, it was a pretty poor meal.   
  
Rogue sat at one end of the table and helped herself to a sausage and a mini omelette. Bobby was lying to her about John. There was something wrong. Did it make her selfish to worry about her relationship with her boyfriend instead of John? She knew he hated her. Out of all the forms Mystique could have assumed for his punishment, she knew that Rogue’s would piss him off most. And she understood, in a way. After all, this wasn’t the first time she’d seen inside his head. Last year, at Bobby’s house when John had fried those cops she’d grabbed him. She’d been overwhelmed by mental fire at first, then it had faded with frost into thoughts of Bobby. When John had left them it had taken all her willpower not to tell anyone why he had gone. She couldn’t tell them though, not when there was the slightest risk (and she knew she was being paranoid but she couldn’t help it) that Bobby might choose John when he knew the choice was there.   
  
“Those look like some serious thoughts you be having, Cheri.”   
  
She looked up and straight into Gambit’s red eyes as the Cajun sat down beside her. She shrugged. “It’s nothing. I’m just tired.”   
  
“Aww, don’t be too shy ta tell Gambit.”   
  
“Well, alright. I’m wondering why you’re messin’ with me like this. You know I have Bobby.”   
  
Gambit leaned over the table and stabbed a fork into an omelette, bringing it to his plate. “Do you, though? Da’s the question, Rogue.”   
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She couldn’t hide the anger at his presumption that he knew her life. Not when she knew so much about his, the thieves, the father, the drugs…   
  
“I don’t see him here,” he casually replied, looking into her eyes again.   
  
“We ain’t Siamese twins. Just because we’re together don’t mean we can’t ever be apart.”   
  
Before Gambit could say anything else, John sat down at the table across from them. He was alone.   
  
“Where’s Bobby?”   
  
“He went to speak with Xavier about something. He also said you wanted to talk to me. Is everything okay?”   
  
Rogue stared at him. Gambit raised an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic question. “I… kind of. Well, no, I guess it’s not really. I think I got one of your dreams.”   
  
“Oh? What happened?”    
  
None of the expected fury came. “I’m not sure you want me to say while Remy’s here. It was bad.”   
  
Remy started to pick up his plate but John pushed it back down to the table. “It’s fine. He might know about it anyway. Kitty says I spilled a lot of my guts the other night.”   
  
“Dis is true,” Remy nodded.   
  
Huh, Kitty hadn’t mentioned Gambit’s presence on her alcoholic adventure. Did that mean anything? “Okay then. Mystique whipped you and Magneto cut you.”   
  
John frowned as he sipped a glass of water. “I can’t say I remember anything like that happening with the Brotherhood.”   
  
Remy got the first word. “Don’ lie to the lady. You told me and Kitty dat the Brotherhood was the centre of depravity. Sounds to me like sometin’ dat could have happened.”   
  
Now John looked really confused. “I told you the Brotherhood was the centre of depravity?”   
  
“Uh huh.”   
  
“Are you sure?”   
  
Remy stared at him in bewilderment, completing the confusion triangle. “I’m gettin’ the feeling that sometin’ strange is going on.”   
  
“You said it,” Rogue echoed. John may not have been her favourite person in the world but if something was wrong with him then she wanted to help. “John, have you hit your head?”   
  
“Or spoken to any psychics lately, Cheri?”   
  
John scratched the back of his neck. “Ow! Damn, I’ve got a cut or something. Sorry, you think my brain’s been messed up?”   
  
They nodded. Then Bobby came and sat down beside John. “Hey guys, what’s up?”   
  
“Something serious,” Rogue said to her boyfriend. “John’s having memory problems.”   
  
Bobby choked on his orange juice. He wiped his face with a napkin. “What kind of memory problems?”   
  
“The kind that makes me think dis be having sometin’ to do with the Professor.”   
  
“That’s a big accusation,” Bobby said defensively. Rogue wasn’t surprised by his disbelief, she knew how much Bobby loved this place and all the people in it. “But if you really think so, I’ll take John to the Professor right now and check it out.”   
  
“It’s not important,” John said calmly. Too calmly.    
  
“No, it is,” Bobby said as he stood up from the table and grabbed John’s arm. “We’ll get it looked at right now.”   
  
“Maybe I should come with you,” Rogue said, standing up. “I had one of his dreams, after all.”   
  
“No, I got it,” Bobby called over his shoulder as he dragged a bewildered John from the dining room. If Rogue hadn’t been suspicious already, John’s docility and Bobby’s strange behaviour would have made her so.   
  
“You so sure you got Bobby? Looks to me like he’s got John.”   
  
Rogue left the table and ran to her room. Why was Gambit fucking with her like this? He must be able to see how much she was hurting and he just kept pouring salt in the wounds! After a minute there was a knock on her door.   
  
“Go away,” she shouted. The door was pushed open regardless of her demand. Gambit stepped into her room. Rogue shoved him and he took a step back. “I don’t want you here, telling me I don’t have anyone!”   
  
“Cheri, ssh. It don’ matter who you don’ have. Just matters who you do have.” He held out the ace of hearts. Rogue took it, silently charmed by the gesture. “An’ believe me, you got Gambit.”   
  
He leaned in. He wasn’t cringing from her like other people did. Even Bobby occasionally - they were kissing. She pulled away, not wanting to hurt him. He just smiled at her and kissed her again. How was this possible? He wasn’t dying!    
  
There was a gasp in the hallway. They broke apart to see Kitty staring at them, on the verge of tears.   
  
“How could you do this to me?” She was looking at both of them in turn.   
  
“Kitty, I’m sorry,” Rogue said, stepping towards her to try and explain. “But I can touch him! I can actually touch him!”   
  
Kitty’s lips became a thin line. “Congratulations,” she said flatly before running off down the corridor.   
  
“Dis mansion is hardly the easiest place to live, huh.”


	10. Chapter 10

Bobby paced backwards and forwards across their bedroom while John sat on the bed watching him. Xavier had wiped the conversation with Rogue and Gambit from John’s mind and he was considering amending it in theirs too. Bobby had asked if this wasn’t getting out of hand. Xavier had asked to see the metal device John had stuck in his neck. A gut instinct made Bobby refuse and now he felt bad for doing so. Xavier must think that Bobby didn’t trust him now. Thing is, Bobby wasn’t sure if he did anymore. He knew at heart that the Professor only wanted to make everyone’s lives easier. But it was stupid to say now that this was better for John, because the person watching him pace was not John.   
  
“Why are you pacing?”   
  
“I’m annoyed.”    
  
“We could play basketball,” John suggested. “That might help relieve the tension.”   
  
Bobby stared at him. “You hate basketball.”   
  
John just shrugged. “You like it though.”   
  
“But you hate it! You hate all sports.”   
  
John shrugged again. “Not so much these days. Could be fun.”   
  
“No John, it won’t be fun. You’re not an athletic person. We’ll throw a ball around for ten minutes then you’ll get tired and tetchy. You’ll be in a mood all day because I’ll beat you.”   
  
“I won’t get mad at you. It’s not your fault you had more practise at your old school than I did on the streets.”   
  
That was when Bobby began to shake him by the shoulders. “John for God’s sake get angry!” Then he realised he was shaking him pretty hard and he stopped. “I could deal with even slightly moody. If you have to be in a good mood then at least make it because you know someone’s secrets or you know a dirty joke or something. I can’t stand this bland satisfaction! What do you have to be happy about?”   
  
“Who said I was happy?” John asked, looking confused. “I’m just… meh.”   
  
Bobby retreated to his side of the room and sank down onto his bed with his head in his hands. “I’m a terrible, terrible friend.”   
  
“Why?”   
  
“I let him do this to you. I didn’t even try and talk you out of it. We should have tried something else. There must have been other ways to deal with it.”   
  
“Bobby, what are you talking about?”   
  
“Your damn apathy! If I threw your lighter out the window right now, what would you do?”   
  
John took it out his pocket and tossed it over to him. “You can if it’ll make you feel better. I don’t need it.”   
  
“But you love your lighter.”   
  
“I don’t need it, Bobby,” John said in a condescending tone.   
  
“But you… fine.” Bobby clutched the lighter tightly, holding on to a part of the old John. “What if I froze you in a huge block of ice right now?”   
  
“Well there wouldn’t be much I could do, would there? I guess I’d wait for you to unfreeze me.”   
  
Bobby let out a growl of irritation. “And if I took all my clothes off, walked over there and pinned you to the bed?” He pretended it was a hypothetical question and he had no real interest in the answer.   
  
John raised an eyebrow. “Uh…” He was getting through! “I suppose I’d ask what you were doing.” Or maybe he wasn’t getting through. Damn you Professor, lust is not a negative emotion!   
  
“I wish I could give you back your metal thingy,” Bobby sighed, “But I’m pretty sure the second I took it off the Professor would make me forget it existed, then both of us would be screwed.”   
  
“Bobby, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”   
  
“There’s no point in me explaining it to you. Xavier would just wipe it from your brain. I know he’s only doing it because he’s worried about you hurting yourself, but I don’t like seeing you like this. It’s just plain creepy.”   
  
“Sorry,” John said apologetically.   
  
“We should have tried having you sleep in my bed,” Bobby said in what he hoped was a casual voice. “You didn’t burn the room when you slept by me.”   
  
“I burned the room?”   
  
“Aaaaargh!” Bobby shouted with frustration. He notice he’d iced the floor. “Oh crap.”   
  
“You need to learn better control,” John said helpfully.   
  
“Clearly I have some control or I’d be hitting you right now.”   
  
There was a knocking at their door. Before they could invite the person in, Kitty phased through the wood.   
  
“You know, it’s polite to wait until you’re invited to enter a room,” Bobby said, then stopped as he saw the tears streaming down her face.   
  
“What happened?” John asked, concern being an emotion he still possessed.   
  
The brunette ran over to him and buried her face in his neck. Her words were too muffled to understand. Bobby wished he could get that close to John’s neck.   
  
“Kitty, I can’t understand what you’re saying.” John pushed her back gently so she could be heard.   
  
“Gambit and Rogue,” she said between sniffles and shaky breaths. “They were kissing! He was kissing her!”   
  
“No,” Bobby said adamantly, “they can’t have been. It’s a nice story Kitty, but Rogue can’t touch, remember?”   
  
“She can touch Gambit!” Kitty cried out.   
  
“Everybody calm down,” John said soothingly. “We’ll work this out better if we don’t argue amongst ourselves.”   
  
Kitty stared at him and leaned in to get a better look at his pupils. “John, are you high?”   
  
“No, he’s under psychic watch to make sure he’s a good little boy. It’s almost like he’s sedated. Xavier doesn’t let him think about anything that might rile him up. Watch, he’ll forget I said this now.”   
  
John blinked at Bobby. “No thanks Bobby, I ate at brunch.” He turned to a shocked Kitty. “So what did you see?”   
  
“Bobby, you can’t let this go on! He’s not like John anymore!”   
  
“Kitty, ssh. If you don’t keep it to yourself Xavier will probably make you forget I said anything about it.”   
  
Kitty shook her head. “He wouldn’t go that far.”   
  
“I thought that too before my best friend became a pod person.”   
  
“Um, have I missed something?” John asked, looking lost as pieces of the conversation were taken from his mind.   
  
“Oh yeah, you’re missing something alright,” Bobby said, unable to stop himself from taking this out on John. It wasn’t like he’d get offended anyway.   
  
The other boy just stared at him blankly for a moment. “Right. So, you’re saying you saw Remy and Rogue kiss?”   
  
“Yeah,” Kitty said, seemingly understanding that there was nothing she could do for John’s condition. That or Xavier had drained her brain too. But then, he couldn’t keep watch on all of their minds all of the time, so she might be alright. “She saw me there and said that she could touch him so I should let her have him.”   
  
“But how is that possible?” Bobby asked, still doubting that Kitty was telling the truth.   
  
“I don’t know,” the girl said with a shrug. As Bobby turned away from her, she shrieked. “What’s that in your neck?”   
  
Bobby reached his hand back and ran his fingers over the cool metal. It wouldn’t warm up, not from his skin. “It’s what’s keeping the Professor from messing with my brain.”   
  
“You know there’s a switch on it?”   
  
“Really? Is it the on and off switch?”   
  
“I don’t think so,” Kitty moved over to him to inspect the metal. “Hey, why isn’t Xavier in my head?”   
  
“Maybe he’s doing something else and he’s not checking minds right now. Could be searching for Brotherhood members on Cerebro again.”   
  
“Maybe. Should I switch the switch?”   
  
“Okay, just for a minute, although it’s probably the on and off switch.”   
  
Then a blinding pain seared through his skull and brought Bobby to his knees. When he could open his eyes again, Kitty and John were kneeling besides him looking scared shitless and mildly concerned, respectively.   
  
“What happened, are you okay?”   
  
“Yeah, the pain’s gone. I’m assuming you flicked the switch again?”   
  
She shook her head. “No, after I did it once and you fell, I left it. Whatever it was has worn off on its own.”   
  
Before anyone could come up with a theory, the door burst open as Logan crashed through it, claws out. “They’re alright, Charlie. Nobody seems hurt.” He sniffed the air. “Or smells hurt.”   
  
Xavier followed Logan through the door in his wheelchair. “Bobby, are you alright?”   
  
“Yeah, we just… changed the settings on the chip thing.”   
  
“Ah. You should be careful playing with that. If you’re mature enough to have it then you should know it is not a toy.”   
  
“You know what we did?”   
  
“I can no longer read your thoughts. We assumed something terrible had happened, but it seems that you have just turned up the power on the device.”   
  
“You mean that before you could read the thoughts but you couldn’t change them, whereas now…”   
  
“You are completely alone in your mind, Bobby.”   
  
“Cool.” That could be useful.   
  
“But since we know nothing of the device’s nature, I must ask that you remove it, or at least switch it to its previous setting so I know if something goes wrong.”   
  
“No thanks Professor, I’ll be fine.” His thoughts were for him only.   
  
“Bobby, I really must insist…”   
  
“Why? I’ll tell you if anything happens. I’m with John and Kitty, they’ll know if something happens. This,” Bobby tapped his head, “is one area of the mansion that isn’t yours.”   
  
Xavier looked troubled. “Bobby, I fear you may be developing anxiety problems relating to my abilities. You know I adhere to a strict ethical code…”   
  
“JOHN’S A FREAKING VEGETABLE!”   
  
He hadn’t meant to shout, he really hadn’t, but he couldn’t keep it bottled up any more. Everyone was staring at him now and he felt a bit embarrassed. “I know it’s for his own good but I really don’t know if it is doing him any good. I know we can’t have him starting fires all round the place but there has to be a better solution than making him emotionless.”   
  
“I’m not emotionless,” John said, looking slightly affronted.   
  
“As good as. Please Professor, let him have his whole mind back. It’s driving me insane to see him like this.”   
  
There was silence for a few moments. Logan looked really confused. Then Xavier spoke up.   
  
“Very well. He can be himself again, but you really must give me that psychic blocking device.”   
  
Bobby saw it for what it was. A question of trust. Did he trust Xavier to keep his word anymore? Really the Professor had done nothing more than what he said he would do, and John had given his consent. But paranoia wasn’t easy to give up.   
  
“I can’t give it to you.”   
  
Kitty glared at him. “Bobby! How can you…”   
  
Xavier cut her off. “Kitty, could you wait outside? You too, Logan.”   
  
Both X-Men departed from the room, leaving Bobby and Xavier with John, who yawned as if the conversation meant nothing to him. Maybe Xavier had stopped him hearing it.   
  
“Bobby, what are you doing? Why do you really need that device? Have you really lost all faith in me over this minor incident?”   
  
“This ‘minor incident’ happens to be my best friend’s loss of personality!”   
  
“I see. Bobby, John gave you that device to preserve your memory of the conversation, not because he thought I would alter your mind. He wanted you to remember that he consented to the procedure.”   
  
“No. He wanted me to remember that you’d done it, in case he’d made a mistake in consenting. I know John as well as you do Professor, without psychic powers.”   
  
“You like to think you do. That is after all what young love is about, knowing each other better than anyone else.”   
  
“Love?” Bobby’s jaw dropped. “I don’t know what you think….”   
  
“You project your feelings usually, Bobby. I’ve seen more of your imagination than I truly feel comfortable with. You care for him deeply, but you do not know him. You do not know the things he has done or what he is capable of. You might have heard vague news of an incident in London?”   
  
“You said it was humans.”   
  
“It was John. He lost control. And he’s getting worse Bobby, don’t you see?”   
  
Bobby glanced over at John. He was doing his homework, seemingly ignorant of their presence. “Well we have to teach him some control then. You can do it for everyone else, why not him?”   
  
“Because everyone else wants it. John couldn’t care less and that scares me. He’s vaguely ashamed when he causes a lot of casualties, but the rush he gets from his powers keeps him doing it again and again. He’s virtually a fire addict, he forgets about everything but himself when he gets hold of a flame.”   
  
“Well, can’t you just take the dreams? That’s where the real problems are from.”   
  
“No, it isn’t. The dreams are just memories, Bobby. The problems come from the original events and John remembers them in his waking hours too.”   
  
“What kind of events are we talking about here?”   
  
“Magneto taught him to lose control. That is the philosophy at the forefront of his mind all the time. John was dangerous enough before, now he’s uncontrollable. The dreams may be causing reasonably sized fire, but I can almost guarantee that the trigger for his biggest destructive wave will be an occurrence in the day. Maybe something will anger him or startle him, then the fire will begin raging and he will lose the power to control it.” The Professor sighed. “I’m sorry Bobby but there is no way I can allow him to continue in that vein. The consequences would be disastrous.”   
  
“Well okay, the anger and the fear have to go,” Bobby said reluctantly, even as he privately disagreed. It was so great to know Xavier couldn’t read his mind. “But what about lust? Surely…”   
  
“Lust is the worst of all.”   
  
“How do you know?”   
  
“The dreams have been mostly sexual in nature,” Xavier explained.   
  
“But, I thought you said the dreams are memories.” Xavier nodded. “Johnny hasn’t had sex. He told me and I’m sure he wasn’t lying.”   
  
“It was the truth, before he left.”   
  
Bobby couldn’t think straight after that. He couldn’t drag his eyes away from the lean boy on the bed that he had a bit of a crush on. Who’d got there first? Who’d stolen him away? He wanted to ask the question, but his mouth wouldn’t form the words. Instead, he went and sat on the bed next to John, watching as the other teen completely blanked his presence.   
  
“Fine. Leave it as it is. I guess I’ll deal with it.”   
  
Xavier smiled sadly. “In time, after training, I can remove the blocks. He won’t be like this forever, Bobby.”   
  
The Professor left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.    
  
“Oh, hey Bobby.” John looked up at him, seeing him for the first time.   
  
“Hey John. What do you say we take one of the cars out tomorrow?”   
  
“Sure. Where we going?”   
  
“There are some things I’ve got to do.” And number one was to get his friend back. Luckily, a slip of paper in John’s bag told him exactly where he needed to go.


	11. Chapter 11

When Marie exited her room in the morning, Logan sniffed the air. She smelled different, wrong somehow. Gambit followed behind her and reached for her hand. He smelled of her. 

Logan’s growl stopped them in their tracks. “Hey kid.”

“Oh, hey Logan,” Marie said with an uneasy smile. “What ya up to?”

He didn’t answer her question, just stared at their entwined hands. She wasn’t wearing gloves and Gambit seemed fine. “You’re touching him,” he said dumbly, pointing at their hands.

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” The girl said enthusiastically.

“Thought you were playing around with Iceboy.”

“Bobby?” As if he could have meant anyone else. “Well yeah, kinda…”

“Just because touching him will hurt him doesn’t mean leaving him will be painless,” Logan said, trying to ignore his inner squirming at the moral words. He couldn’t reasonably be angry with her for her loss of innocence, not after he’d tried to steal Jean from under Scott’s nose over and over again.

Gambit stepped forward. “I’m not seeing how dis be your problem, Wolverine.”

Just as Logan was about to unsheathe his claws, his name was called from down the hall. Bobby jogged up to him. “Hey, I need to talk to you.”

“Right now?”

“It’s important. Oh, hey Rogue.”

“Hey Bobby. Listen,” she looked awkward, “we need to talk.”

“Okay, sure. I’ve just got to have a word with Mr Logan first, then…”

“Now Bobby.” Clearly she wanted to get it over with while she still had the nerve.

But Bobby was clearly distracted. “Rogue, I love you but I have some very important stuff to sort out and…”

“I’m leaving you!” 

Logan and Remy winced as Bobby was derailed. After a few moments of shocked silence, his eyes focused on Rogue and Gambit’s hands, which were still linked together. “Oh. You’re not… You can touch him?” Their eyes met, Bobby’s hurt and Rogue’s sad.

“Yeah, I can touch him. Bobby, I’m sorry, I…”

“It’s fine,” he said, waving a hand at her dismissively and turning to Logan. Clearly the kid couldn’t deal with this right now. Wolverine planned to be absent for that particular emotional outpour. “I need your help.”

“With what? My math ain’t so good.”

Bobby looked at Rogue and Gambit anxiously. “I can’t talk about it here, come on.” He walked back in the direction of his dorm room.

Logan sighed then followed him. “Alright, but if this is some male puberty thing, I’m sending you to Scott.”

Bobby frowned at him, but was otherwise silent on the walk there.

“You really okay with Rogue leaving you?” It wasn’t subtle, but Logan rarely saw the need to tiptoe around issues.

Bobby opened the door for Logan then locked it once they were both inside. “I’ve got more important things to worry about right now.” He sat down on his bed and stared across at John, who was tying his laces unaware he was being watched.

“Right and it’s these ‘important things’ that need my help, is it?”

Bobby gestured for Logan to sit by him and whispered, “Stay quiet, or John will hear us. Xavier doesn’t mess with your mind, does he? I heard from Jean once that psychics avoid reading you.”

Logan nodded. The flare of pain at Jean’s name was pathetic, he knew it. “Yeah, why?”

“Because you can help me fix John.”

“Fix him? What’s wrong with him? Aside from the obvious.”

Bobby’s eyes narrowed at him. “And what’s the obvious?”

Shit, the kid didn’t know. “Well, the Brotherhood was a bit of a headfuck for him.”

Bobby nodded. “Yeah. But that’s not the problem. Well, it kind of is but not really. Xavier’s been messing with his head.”

“Is this what you were making all that fuss about last night?” Logan’s confusion had been ignored by Xavier, who’d told him it was nothing to concern himself with.

“Yeah. He’s taken all John’s lust, anger and fear away. And his pain too I guess, since pain can lead to the others.”

“So what do you want me to do, kid? If you say fight Xavier, I’m walking out of this room. Whether he likes doing it or not, he can still shut my mind down.” Psychics creeped him out.

“I don’t want you to hurt anyone,” Bobby said, looking shocked. Logan remembered how scared the kid had looked after that invasion of the institute, when Logan had stabbed that soldier in front of him. Of course he wouldn’t want anyone hurt. He’d taken Pyro back into his room easily, all forgiven. He was Xavier’s ideal student. So why all this cloak and dagger shit?

“What do you want?”

Bobby’s voice got even quieter and if it hadn’t had been for Logan’s acute senses he might not have heard him say “I want you to take me to Magneto.”

Logan couldn’t do anything about the expression of horrified disbelief that he knew was on his face. In a very emphatic whisper he said “are you insane?”

“He made this thing that’s keeping my thoughts hidden. I know he can make one for John.”

“So what, you’re gonna pay him for it? Maybe mow his lawn in exchange for the favour? He won’t just hand you the solution to your problems.”

“It’s the only way I can think of,” Bobby said with a shrug. “I can’t let John stay like this.”

“Bobby, he’d sooner kill you than help you.”

“You mean John?”

“Magneto.”

“Right. Well I thought he might do it because John was in the Brotherhood and…”

“It doesn’t work like that. And I think taking John to the Brotherhood could be the biggest mistake we could make. You don’t know how they treated him.”

“So tell me,” Bobby whispered, managing to sound defiant.

“I don’t think John would appreciate that.”

“If we don’t get him sorted he won’t appreciate anything much ever again.”

“I’m sure the Prof won’t let it go on too long.”

“I thought that too, but it doesn’t matter. That he’s done this at all is the thing. I didn’t realise it would be this bad. John said it would be okay and I figured he knew what he was doing, but…” Bobby looked like he was going to cry.

“So you’re defecting.”

“No!” Bobby jumped at the loud sound of his own voice and looked over at John, who was tidying his desk. Normally he would have been playing with his lighter, telling Bobby to get his ass in gear because they weren’t out the door yet. It was disconcerting. Bobby lowered his voice to a whisper again. “I’m not leaving the X-Men. This place is my home and the people here are my friends and my family. Xavier has been like a father to me and even this doesn’t make me want to leave. It just makes me want to fix things. I want you to help, please Logan.”

Logan looked away from Bobby’s desperate eyes. This was such a bad idea. “Even if we take Pyro to him…”

“His name’s John.”

“Right. There’s no way we’ll be leaving easily. And just because I don’t get read by Charles, it don’t mean I’ll be any use against Magneto. Metal bones, remember? He’ll crush me.”

“Not if we come in peace.” Logan stared, unbelieving, but Bobby actually seemed to believe it. 

There was one more thing that had to be brought up, even though it made Logan sick to his stomach to think about it. Even though it would be a breach of Pyro’s privacy, it had to be said. It might make Bobby reconsider after all, and Magneto would probably clue him in on it if they went.

“Listen kid, I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but Magneto…” he sighed. “Magneto and John were intimate. Really intimate.”

“Sexually?” Bobby asked in a small voice.

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” If Logan never heard that small sound again it would be too soon. The kid had suffered enough bombshells today.

“You still wanna go?”

“Yes.” Logan couldn’t tell if it was mature resolve or childish stubbornness. “He’ll definitely help if he cares about him that much.”

“I don’t know if he cares about him. To some people sex doesn’t mean much.”

“What about John? Did he… love… Magneto?”

“I didn’t get that much info. We only got a brief insight, me and Ororo. Magneto really messed him up. I don’t know if love came into it, but I don’t think he would have come crying back to us if he was in love with that metal maniac.”

“Why did he come back?”

“Because they could only give him what he wanted. Not what he needed. There comes a time when you have to grow up and accept that want and need aren’t the same thing and you can’t pretend they are.”

“Like me and Rogue.”

“Huh?”

“I wanted her to be happy. It didn’t need to be with me.”

Logan patted his shoulder sympathetically. “So, you have the faintest clue on how to find Magneto?”

Bobby nodded and pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. “Address and phone number.”

“You wanna make an appointment?”

Bobby chuckled. “No, just saying. I found this in John’s bag.”

“Interesting that he kept it.”

“He likes to have open options.”

“Don’t we all,” Logan sighed. “Come on then,” he said standing, “let’s go get killed.”

“You know,” Bobby said with a raised eyebrow, “I can think of snappier pep talks.” He picked up a rucksack then turned to the other occupant of the room. “Come on John, we’re going to the mall.”

John nodded and followed them out. They’d made it to the end of the hall when the plan hit its first snag.

“Bobby, John, wait up!” Kitty linked her arms with theirs so that they took up the whole corridor and Logan had to walk behind. “Thanks for letting me sleep on your floor last night guys, I really appreciate it.”

“I think Rogue and Gambit are a proper item now,” Bobby said sadly. 

Kitty’s face fell. “She broke up with you?”

“Yep.”

“Oh Bobby, I’m so sorry.” Kitty let go of John’s arm so she could hug Bobby. Then they continued walking in uncomfortable silence. Logan vaguely remembered Pyro hating uncomfortable silences, but the kid seemed content enough. Charles had really done a number on him. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Kitty made a visible attempt at perking up. “So, where you guys headed?”

“The mall,” John answered.

Kitty squealed. “Oh, can I come?”

“I don’t see a problem with it,” John said. “Bobby?”

“Sure,” Bobby said with a grin. Logan said nothing. This could only get worse. They were going to have to ditch poor Kitty in the middle of nowhere then pick her up on the way back. If they came back.

“Kitty, wait up Cheri,” said Remy who jumped down half the stairs in order to catch up with them. Kitty turned away from him and folded her arms. 

“We’re going to the mall. I can’t talk to you now.”

“Den I will come wit’ you. We need to talk. I get the feelin’ I upset you somehow.”

“No d’uh,” Kitty said, but she relented. “Fine. Come with us then.”

Logan raised his eyebrows at Bobby in silent question as they reached the garage. Bobby just shrugged. They’d gone too far now to say anything. Xavier would soon know if they told John, Kitty or Remy what was really going on. They would have to keep going ahead with things.

Logan took the wheel of Scott’s car, Bobby sat in the front passenger seat and John sat between Kitty and Remy in the back. 

“When we go past the mall,” Bobby whispered, “we’ll drop them off and tell them everything.”

Logan started the car and drove out of the garage, trying to imagine he wasn’t driving these young people to their deaths.

Sure enough, they were soon by the shopping mall. Logan didn’t pull into the car-park, he stopped outside at the edge of the road. 

“Why are we stopping here?” Kitty asked in confusion.

“We’ve gotta tell you something.” Logan caught Bobby’s eye and nodded towards John. “You think he’s alright now? You know more about Xavier’s power than I do.”

“Xavier’s forged a bond of sorts with John’s mind. He’ll need Cerebro to influence Kitty and Gambit, but John’s still his.” Bobby fished around in his bag before pulling out a bottle and cloth.

“Chloroform? You ransacked medlab?” Logan was slightly surprised. “You’ll be cutting class and smoking next.”

“Someone needs to be John,” Bobby said as Logan grabbed the teen and pressed the soaked cloth to his face. “Uh, better open all the windows.” John sagged in Logan’s arms as the others opened the car windows to get rid of the fumes.

“That ought to do it.”

Gambit looked quite concerned now. Kitty reached out and patted his arm. “It’s okay, I think I know what’s going on.” Then she snatched her arm back, seemingly remembering that she was angry with him. “Are we saving him?”

Bobby nodded. “Yeah, we’re going to get his mind back.”

“How?” The petite girl asked.

“We’re going to ask Magneto for help.”

Both Remy and Kitty stared at Bobby with the same expression that Logan had sported when told the master plan. Kitty was the first to recover. “Okay, I guess we don’t have much of a choice.”

“Somebody mind tellin’ me what the hell is happenin’ here?” 

“I’ll explain on the way,” Kitty said to the Cajun. “But all you need to know is that John’s not well and Magneto can probably help. In or out?”

Remy leant back in his seat and whistled through his teeth. Clearly it was a difficult decision. “You sure it’s safe for the Cheri?” he asked Logan, gesturing towards Kitty.

“Nope, not a clue. This is a gamble, but she’s willing to take it. What about you, bub?”

Remy sighed. “Can’t let you all waltz in there wit’out me. I’m in.” He turned to Kitty, who’d pulled John’s head into her lap so he was laying across them. “Now you tell Gambit what’s goin’ on here.”

“We’re rushing towards uncertain doom,” Kitty supplied cheerily.

“Oh. Why’s dat now?”

“Because we’re rushing away from certain doom,” said Bobby.

Logan wondered if perhaps they didn’t have that the wrong way round, but he drove regardless. No turning back now. 

And he wondered if, when standing with Magneto and Mystique leaving Alkali Lake, Pyro hadn’t thought exactly the same thing.


	12. Chapter 12

He’d always known that it would never last. He’d watched as the boy stared out of the helicopter and he had seen the bitter burning in his eyes. Nothing burns forever. Except hell of course, but Pyro had never been that bad. More naughty than evil, more lively than fanatic, more an angel falling than a devil damned.

So when he had woken that morning to find he was alone in his bed it had been no surprise. The house was hot and smelled of burnt wood and that particular acrid melted metal smell that Erik was becoming rather fond of. Perhaps Pyro had not left them yet.

But after donning his robe and descending the stairs, Erik saw that his hopes were pointless. Mystique sat on the floor beside a charred table. The metal smell was what could have been a lighter, laying in a thick puddle on the floor. Mystique looked up when she saw him. She was badly burned down her side. Erik rushed over to her.

“My dear, what…”

“He left Erik, I’m so sorry.”

“I know that, but you’re hurt. What happened?”

“I tried to stop him,” she said with a tired smile. “I tried so hard. I think I hurt his head. Sorry. I didn’t want him to leave you.”

Erik reached into the drawer of the burnt table and pulled out some burn ointment. There was a tube of it in every room, next to a tube of lube and a fire safety blanket. He began to apply the ointment to Mystique’s shoulder, silently pleased with her stubborn refusal to show any pain. Alas, so different from Pyro’s keen responsiveness. “You should have let him leave.”

“But we need him. You need him.”

Erik pressed a little hard on the burn near her elbow. Still she showed no pain. “I need no-one.”

“Erik,” she placed an unusually gentle hand on his shoulder, making him meet her yellow eyes, currently softened in sympathy. “You need him because he needs you. He’s like me in that way. Without you, we’d both be nothing. If he returns to those X-Men they’ll make him nothing again. They’ll only look his way to lecture him on the ethical use of his ridiculously destructive powers. That boy he likes will never give him what you did and he’ll fade away through neglect. Pyro will become St John and St John will become nothing. I can’t say I cared for him like you did but he has so much potential. I don’t want to see those X-Men,” she spat the word like it was poison, “suppress it.”

Erik sighed and continued putting the lotion on her wrist. “We only borrowed him. He was never ours.”

“He was yours. He wanted to be yours.”

“He didn’t know what he wanted,” Erik said with a shake of his head. “He wanted to be anyone’s. I made him an offer that he didn’t know how to refuse. We’ve had our time with him, now he must decide what he wants to do.”

“The X-Men will turn him against us.”

“I don’t think so,” Erik said with a smile as he applied the lotion to her blue palm. “To manipulate Pyro you need to own a part of him. We do, they do not.”

“What about the Iceman?”

“What about him? You said it yourself, he will never give Pyro what he needs. None of those do-gooder idealists can.”

“You think he’ll come back?” Mystique asked as he recapped the lotion and put it back in the drawer.

“I don’t know. He’s a very confused young man.”

“I caught him writing down our address and phone number.”

“Ah. Maybe he will return to serve us yet. Do you want me to bandage that?”

Mystique stood and looked over her arm. The white ointment covered her left arm from her shoulder to her fingertips. She must have grabbed Pyro. “No, the lotion will be fine. I hate it when bandages stick to burns.”

“Very well. Oh, before you go…” Erik gestured to the metal that was cooling on the floor. “What was that?”

“His lighter. His fire burned almost white hot when I…” she turned away.

“When you what?”

“When I told him you loved him.”

She quickly left the room. Erik sighed and sat on the scorched sofa. The fireplace was still burning.

He sat and watched the flames dance until the last coal stopped glowing.

 

“Magneto!” His thoughts were interrupted. “Sir!”

“Yes, what is it?” 

Sabertooth ran into his office room. “There’s a car outside, they just buzzed the gate. It’s X-Men!”

“Charles?” Magneto put on his helmet.

“Nah, not the Professor. It’s some kids and the Wolverine. Just say the word and I’ll tear ‘em apart!” Sabertooth’s eyes gleamed with bloodlust.

“Which kids?”

Sabertooth shrugged. “Dunno.” Clearly he’d been too busy growling out the window at Wolverine, like a cat who sees another cat in its garden.

“You are utterly useless.” Magneto rose to his feet and walked regally out of his office, towards the front door. Mystique stood in the doorway, staring out across the lawn at the car behind the iron gate. “Who is it?”

“Wolverine, Iceman, Gambit, Shadowcat,” she turned to face him, “Pyro.”

“Really.” He kept his expression neutral. “Have they told us the reason for their friendly visit?!

“Other than to say they aren’t starting any trouble, no.”

After a few moments of consideration, Magneto waved his hand. The gates opened and the car pulled into the driveway. He watched as they shuffled out of the car uneasily. He was confused and reluctantly worried when Wolverine lifted John out. Iceman was the first to walk up the path, the others following behind nervously. Clearly this was not a situation they were comfortable with. Had Charles given up and sent John back to him? Had he realised that his ideas and solutions were not universal and that each mutant was an individual with individual needs and motivations? Perhaps he didn’t like having the boy around as a constant reminder that Erik could move on and had done so.

“We need your help,” Iceman said. “Sir.”

Without looking, Magneto knew that Mystique’s eyes would be wide beside him. “And what do you need my help for?”

Iceman turned slightly away and pointed to the back of his neck, where Erik could see his own work. “We need more of these. Even one will do.”

“I want one too,” Kitty said with a pout.

“Don’ be leavin’ out Gambit,” added the Cajun.

Wolverine shrugged when they looked at him. “If things go bad to worse I’m hightailing it out of there, not counting on a piece of metal made by a terrorist. No offence,” he said with a sneer to Magneto.

“May I ask why you require them?”

“Xavier’s been messing with minds. Well, only John’s mind so far but…”

“What has he done exactly?”

“John was causing a lot of fires you know, losing control of his powers. The Professor thought it would be best if he muted some of John’s more powerful emotions. I think he got a little carried away though because John’s not John any more…”

“What emotions?”

“Fear, anger…lust…”

Magneto seethed at Xavier’s shameless abuse of power. “Well of course he’s not himself! How people react to those three states is what makes them who they are! Timid or brave, calm or irritable, frigid or insatiable,” Iceman suddenly looked at the ground, “those words mean nothing if the person is forced to ignore basic emotions.” He turned away from them all and went further into the house with Mystique. “Follow me.”

They walked down a corridor until they reached a certain panel in the wall that Magneto pressed. It moved aside to reveal a palm scanner that he placed his hand on. The light moved over his hand then the segment of wall it was on lifted to reveal a elevator. He heard a gasp from Shadowcat. “Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s a bit like the mansion.”

“Of course my dear, who do you think designed the place?” They entered the elevator and it started a rapid descent. “Is Charles taking credit for my work again?”

There was a silence that meant he probably was. The lift slowed to a stop and the door opened to a labyrinth of metallic corridors and doors. He led the X-Men to a room with sofas and cameras. “Wait here and I will fetch some of my psychic defence mechanisms.” He paused to watch Wolverine lay John down on the sofa. “Why is he unconscious?”

“Chloroformed him,” the burly man replied. “After Xavier had been in his head, we didn’t wanna risk him knowing where we were headed.”

“A wise decision,” Magneto said. “How long has Xavier been controlling his emotions?”

“A few days, as far as we know,” Shadowcat said timidly.

“Then there is a slight problem. Xavier has probably been suppressing Pyro’s feelings by pushing them back and blocking them. Removing these psychic blocks suddenly could cause a massive flow of emotion as Pyro regains his memories. This would cause shock in an ordinary human,” the malicious tone he gave to the word reminded everyone who he was, “in Pyro it could mean a disastrous outburst of power.”

“Life was so much easier when the kid needed a lighter,” Wolverine muttered.

“The fire is a symptom of a deep distress, Wolverine. Taking away his fire doesn’t make him better. Xavier knew that and tried to tackle the problem at the roots. His mistake was in misdiagnosing the problem.”

“I’m not sure I understand what it is you’re sayin,’” Gambit said.

“He just needs to let go once in a while,” Mystique said with a smirk.

“But now he’s been caged up inside his own head,” Magneto said almost to himself as he walked over to Pyro’s prone form. He looked down at the messy blond hair and the beautiful lips. He made his decision. “We will take Pyro to the medical ward down the hall while we work out a solution.”

“I want to come too,” said Iceman, standing up and moving between Magneto and Pyro.

“I don’t think that’s wise. When he wakes up there could be…”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m Iceman. I’m forever putting out his fires. And I can make myself iced so he can’t burn me.”

“With the temperatures Pyro can reach now, he might melt you,” Mystique said coolly. 

“I understand your reservations,” Magneto said calmly, “but it is simply too dangerous. But perhaps the girl can come.”

“Me?” Shadowcat asked.

“Yes. You’re a friend of his, I assume?”

“Yeah, but…”

“It might be a good idea for him to have a calming influence present, rather than his boyfriend.”

“Whoa!” Iceman waved his hands in a panicked gesture. “He’s not my boyfriend!”

“Oh, my mistake. I assumed that was why he left, after all he made no secret of his attraction to you.” He couldn’t help but take a small pleasure in toying with them like this. “But still she is the better choice, with her ability to phase through solid objects she will be able to escape if anything were to happen.”

“Just her on her own?” Gambit looked uneasy. Iceman still looked stunned at the revelation of John‘s feelings. “I dunno…”

“I’ll do it,” Shadowcat. “Someone has to be there keeping an eye on him and I am the safest choice. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

Magneto picked up Pyro, disliking the way the boy fell limp in his arms. His skin was much cooler than usual, it was like holding his corpse. “Fetch them the neural repellents and call Mesmero. We may require his services,” he said to Mystique as he left. She nodded and went down the right corridor. 

As Shadowcat made to follow Magneto, Gambit tugged on her arm. She spun round to face him angrily and was startled by a chaste kiss on the lips. “Stay safe, Cheri,” he whispered in her ear. She blushed and nodded before rushing after the Master of Magnetism.

“So who’s Mesmero?” Shadowcat asked as they walked down the long corridor.

“He’s a powerful telepath. Although he is not quite at Charles’ level, he may be of assistance in bringing Pyro back gradually with minimal chaos.”

They reached a room that looked very similar to the medical room in the Xavier Institute, where Magneto set John down on the bed. The boy sighed deeply and it stirred something inside Erik. “Would you wait with him please while I fetch Mesmero?”

“Sure,” the girl said cheerily as she sat down by the bed. She was probably ecstatic to be of use. Magneto felt somewhat guilty at choosing her for her air-headedness.

He went outside and was just about to take the elevator up when it opened on his floor and admitted Mesmero into his company. The discoloured sickly-looking man nodded to him in deference.

“I was told you requested my presence.”

“You arrived fast.”

“I was told it was of the utmost importance and that speed was of the essence.” And of course nobody wanted to get on Magneto’s bad side.

“Yes. I have in my possession a mutant named Pyro whose thoughts have been adjusted by Charles Xavier. I want you to eradicate all traces of the man’s meddling from his mind.”

“May I enquire as to the reason?”

“He used to be one of mine,” Magneto offered as way of explanation. “Can you do that easily enough?” He used a tone of voice that suggested if Mesmero couldn’t do it easily he was going to find life difficult.

“Xavier does good work. But he is distant now, whereas I am near. I can do as you say. It may take some time.”

“That isn’t a problem. But there is another task I have for you. You will best know how to accomplish it for long-term success once you are in his mind.” He glanced down the length of the corridor, checking there were no X-Men wandering the place eavesdropping. “I don’t care how you think is best to do it, I give you permission to use whatever methods you see fit. I do not want him going home with them. By the time you are finished he must be resolute in his desire to stay here with me.”

“And what of the X-Men?”

“I will deal with them. I don’t care if you wipe them from his mind or make him see them all as monsters from another world, he is not to leave with them. Understood?”

Mesmero nodded. “That may take a little longer.”

“How much longer?”

“At least an hour of intense psychic manipulation.”

“That’s fine. Don’t let anyone suspect you of more than fixing him.” They began walking towards the room where Pyro was sleeping. “Will Xavier be able to change him back?”

“Yes, unless you have some way of preventing further psychic interference.”

“I possess neural repellents. Won’t they cancel out your effect?”

“No, I work differently from Xavier. I will be placing permanent alterations whereas his requires intermitting periods of maintenance. I suspect he will be searching for Pyro soon, since he will have noticed his unconsciousness.”

“And the second he uses Cerebro he will be able to locate the others as well. Just as well Mystique is equipping them with neural repelling devices now. Once you have done your work I can put one on Pyro. Is that correct?”

“It will prevent any other psychics from interfering with what I have done.”

“Why doesn’t Xavier do the same when he manipulates minds to make his meddling permanent?” Magneto inquired as they both reached the medical room.

“With all due respects sir,” Mesmero said with a smirk, “Charles Xavier is more ethical than us.”

Magneto smiled darkly as they approached Pyro and Shadowcat. “Isn’t that a controversial topic at the moment?” He put a fatherly hand on Shadowcat’s shoulder as Mesmero put his hands to Pyro’s temples and closed his eyes. “Don’t worry my dear,” he murmured, “I’ll take good care of him.”


	13. Chapter 13

She advanced on him, glove removed and hand outstretched. He shuffled backwards along the floor, looking around the dirty floor for his prized lighter that Magneto had bought for him. As he glanced backwards he felt a hand on his throat and the horrible chill that told him he hadn’t moved from Rogue fast enough. 

It was near impossible to pull away from her when she had a grip on you, it took a will of steel to fight the fatigue and dizziness that rose up in you. Pyro felt the strange inner coldness that occurred when she took his ability to manipulate fire from him. His vision started narrowing and going dark round the edges. When was she planning on letting go? She squeezed his neck and he realised in a strange detached way that he’d stopped breathing and couldn’t quite remember how to start.

“Unhand him!”

He saw a blur, which was Rogue, being hit by another blur, which could have been a large piece of metal. It didn’t matter. It’s the thought of Rogue being hit by something that counts.

Pyro felt himself falling backwards from his seated position, but he didn’t hit the floor. Unless he’d blacked out and missed it. He half-opened his eyes and saw the sky surrounding him. He was in Magneto’s arms, a look of fury on the Master of Magnetism’s regal features as metal shrapnel flew around them and probably targeted the X-Men. Pyro couldn’t find the energy to look down now. He managed to move his head closer up to Magneto’s chest plate. He felt safe and sleepy.

“Sssh, Pyro. I will not let any harm come to those under my command.”

He passed out to the soothing sounds of twisting metal and human screams.

 

“Hey, I think he’s waking up!” Kitty’s shrill voice sliced through his eardrums as he blinked sleepily. He was in the medical room with her, Magneto and Mesmero. What the fuck?

“What’s going on?” His voice sounded rough.

“Fetch him a glass of water,” Magneto commanded, handing Kitty a metallic beaker. “The bathroom is two doors down on the right.” She nodded and hurried off.

Magneto sat on the edge of his bed and put a hand on his cheek. “How are you feeling, Pyro?”

“I’ve got a bit of a headache,” Pyro said, leaning into the cool touch.

“That’s to be expected. Xavier was manipulating your mind to take you away from me. I have had his influence removed, but even as we speak the X-Men have come to take you back to the institute.”

“Why?” Pyro sat up angrily, ignoring the way his vision tilted. “If they know you’re removing his influence…”

“They are eager to believe that Xavier’s influence was minimal and that you will still want to return to the school. Xavier has learnt of your increasing power and seeks to use you for his own ends. Perhaps that Iceman has finally seen the light and enlisted the others to get you back to fulfil his own desires.”

Pyro sneered. “Not fucking likely.”

“No? I was under the impression you found him attractive.” Magneto’s voice was all curiosity, no jealousy, which irritated Pyro.

The fiery teen knelt up and wrapped his arms around his boss’ neck. “He was a stupid schoolboy crush. I have more mature interests now.”

Magneto disentangled himself from Pyro and walked over to Mesmero. “Thank you for making him well again. Would it be possible for you to wait around the building until I speak with you at leisure about your payment?”

Mesmero nodded and took his leave. Kitty phased back through the wall as Mesmero went through the door. She carried the water carefully over to Pyro, the condensation showing that she’d waited for the water to cool. “Here you go, are you feeling better?”

“Much,” he said, taking the cup from the ditzy girl and sipping it slowly.

Magneto walked over to his side. “He remembers everything about Xavier’s violation of his mind.”

Kitty nodded, clasping her hands together. “He has the psychic interference device on now, right? We can go back and talk to the Professor about it as soon as he feels ready to go.”

“I’m not going back to that place,” he growled at her, savouring the confusion and fear in her eyes. “That man laughs at us for claiming to be gods and then what does he do? He fucking plays god himself. If you guys think I’m going back to his stupid school then you’ve got another thing coming.”

“John, I understand you’re upset with the Professor.”

“Upset!?!” A cabinet in the corner exploded into flame, making Kitty shriek. “I’m fucking furious! And not just with him!”

“What do you mean?” The girl asked shakily, backing away.

“You all just stood back and let it happen!” They must have known how confining being Xavier’s ideal student would be.

“That’s not true! We even went to the Brotherhood to help you!”

“And now you want me to come back to a house where an old man in a wheelchair has nothing better to do than fuck with the minds of his students? Are you insane?”

“But with the device…”

“It’s not about whether he can do it or not!” The flame in the corner was spreading to adjacent machines. Magneto watched it with a smile. “It’s the principle of the thing. He can and he would if it weren’t for Magneto taking measures against it. So I’m choosing to stay with the terrorist who looks after me rather than the headmaster who likes a bit of mental molestation!”

“But what about Bobby?” She asked, glancing sideways nervously at the growing fire.

“What about him?” Pyro shrugged.

“You love him.”

Pyro’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a lie,” he hissed.

“But you told me…”

“Don’t you fucking get it!” The girl winced as he shouted. “Nothing I said back then was true! Xavier made it all up in his sick head!”

There were tears in her eyes now. “But Magneto told him you liked him.”

Pyro looked up inquisitively at his master, who nodded. “I assumed Xavier had got you into some form of relationship with young Iceman, then I had to explain my assumptions.”

He turned back to Kitty. “I think he’s pretty hot for an X-geek. I’d do him. Doesn’t mean I’d marry him. You really need to grow up and get a sense of the real world. Then again, what would you know? You’re a silly little virgin without any friends. How does it feel to know that Xavier made me your friend by psychic force?”

A solitary tear spilled down her cheek, threatening reinforcements from her tear-ducts. “Stop it. I know you liked me.”

“No Kitty, I didn’t. You’re a whiny, selfish, air-headed ditz. Why do you think you have no real friends? Why do you think Gambit was in Rogue’s bed last night instead of taking what you offered?”

She slapped him. The little bitch slapped him! He touched his cheek. It was burning. Someone had been working on their upper arm strength. He glared at her. “You stupid little…”

He raised his arm and jet of flame shot from the inferno in the corner of the room, straight towards Kitty’s pretty face. She gasped and went insubstantial, making the flame pass through her and scorch the wall. Before he could make another move, she ran through the wall. 

Magneto took hold of his shoulder to stop him jumping up and chasing her. “My boy, she isn’t worth the hassle. Let her run crying to them.” Lips caressed his ear. “Even together they cannot stop you, Pyro.”

That familiar thrill hummed through his skin. He’d missed this so much and thanks to Xavier, he hadn’t even realised how much. But it was reassuring to know that Magneto would always rescue him. He put a hand on his mentor’s cheek. “I missed you, sir.” He knew the man liked it when he was deferent.

Magneto’s lips and tongue were as warm and unforgivingly strong as he remembered. The man ravaged his mouth mercilessly. “You are mine, Pyro.”

The teen nodded, panting. “Of course.”

“Nobody will take you from me while I have breath in my lungs.”

“I’d kill them for you if you asked.” After he’d said it he felt a momentary doubt, but he quickly crushed it. He would do whatever he had to in order to prove his loyalty.

“There will be other days for that. They may be of use to us yet.” But Pyro could sense the underlying pleasure at his offer. 

“What do we do when they come in here asking why I made the pretty Kitty sad?”

“We just tell them that you have chosen to stay and if they do not leave of their own free will we will make them leave.”

The door opened and they both looked up expectantly, but it was only Mystique. The blue woman looked amused. “What on earth did you say to her, Pyro?”

“What, she didn’t say?”

“We couldn’t make out what she was saying through her crying.”

Mystique sat down on the end of the bed as Pyro brought his legs up to make room for her. “I just insulted her a little with the truth and then I threw a flame at her head. I don’t know why she’s all broken up over it.”

“X-Men don’t understand the truth,” Magneto said grandly. “They live in an elaborate lie that Charles Xavier has constructed for them. When confronted with the truth, either about the base nature of the species they defend or about their own pointless existence, they respond with fear and anger. It’s uncanny, their resemblance to regular homo sapiens in that way.” Statements like that, the ones that cleared up the world for him, were part of the reason Pyro adored this man.

“Maybe they’ve listened to you and left,” Mystique suggested after another few minutes of them sitting in the medical room, which only had small fires in it now. Magneto’s soothing hand rubbing his back had calmed the bonfire.

“They’re walking this way now,” Pyro said impassively. He could feel the heat from all of them except Bobby, who was more conspicuous for his sub-zero temperatures. 

“Then we should ready ourselves,” Magneto said straightening his back to get that imposing posture he was known for. His voice contained no worry or anxiety, he was always confident in his Brotherhood’s abilities. Well, the Pyro and Mystique part, anyway.

Mystique stood up from the bed and assumed what Pyro affectionately called her ‘bitch’ pose, with her arms folded and a bored expression on her blue face.

Pyro stood up from the bed, yawning as his body tried to recall how standing was done. He stood to Magneto’s left, but as footsteps approached the door, the Master of Magnetism pulled him closer with a strong hand on each shoulder. Every inch of Pyro’s back, ass and legs was touching his boss. Possessiveness let him know he cared.

He just hoped Bobby wasn’t too dumb to notice the gesture.


	14. Chapter 14

Bobby was the first to walk into the Medical Room. Logan had wanted to go ahead of them for protection, but Bobby wouldn’t hear it. He was going to get John back and nobody was going to get in his way, friend or foe.

There was no fire launched at him as he went in, which was a surprise from what Kitty had told him about John’s mental state. The pyromaniac was angry with all of them and Bobby could understand that. He was supposed to be his best friend after all and he had let Xavier ‘fix’ his brain like he was broken or something. 

“I don’t know why you insist on coming here,” Magneto was the first to speak, “he has already made his decision. It isn’t you.”

And Bobby knew that Magneto wasn’t speaking to the whole group. He was speaking directly to him. He could see the possessiveness in the firm hands on John’s shoulders, in the way he was holding John close. Like John was a damn object that he had picked up and now he was using the ‘finders, keepers’ rule of the playground. So not gonna happen. “I don’t think he’s thinking straight. I don’t think his decisions are in his best interests right now.” He felt Kitty’s palm on the small of his back, ready to phase fire through them if necessary.

“Oh, you’re the expert in my best interests, aren’t you Drake?” John said with a sneer. His eyes were meaner and sparks of flame kept appearing on the tips of his fingers.

“I think you could give the institute another try,” Bobby said with a shrug. If they could just get him back home they could make him trust them again. Well, trust him at least.

“I think if you don’t give it another try right now, you’ll be going back there in urns,” John said, the sparks on his fingertips racing back into his palm to make a small ball of fire. Bobby was glared at angrily. There was no compassion in the look he received from his friend.

That was when it clicked. John had reverted back into ‘Pyro’, that strange person his friend had always wanted to be. When John had first gone to the Brotherhood, Bobby had seen how hard he was trying to be this false person, this fire god. It was laughable and so pathetic, to see John hating himself so much for all the qualities Bobby had secretly admired in him, the understated concern for people that nobody else noticed and the quiet intelligence. Then a few months had gone by and it wasn’t funny any more. Because John was succeeding in disappearing beneath the veneer of fiery smirks and hatred. And as a person, Pyro scared the living daylights out of Bobby. In the last few times they had fought each other before John’s sudden change of heart, he’d been Pyro. There had been no John left. 

But the Professor couldn’t have made the boy that crawled drunkenly into Bobby’s bed that night. He hadn’t made John set their bedroom alight. Bobby’s mind drifted back to a vision of John surrounding himself in flame and looking at it with a desperate hunger. The Professor hadn’t had anything to do with that. It had been pure John.

Now suddenly John had disappeared again. It was impossible to think that he could just vanish after a minute alone with Magneto. Kitty had only left him for a minute to get a drink, she said. It took longer than a minute for a total personality change! Unless you had a psychic of course…

Of course! Mesmero!

The relief nearly brought Bobby to his knees. “I know what you’ve done Magneto.” The man merely raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t make him better at all. You got Mesmero to make him yours again.”

He heard Logan make a surprised grunt behind him. Clearly Bobby was the only person to have made the connection. Magneto shook his head. “The lengths you people will go to in order to preserve your ideal view of the world astounds me. I removed Xavier’s influence and Pyro has chosen, with retrospective insight, to rejoin the people who care about his individual choices and desires.”

Was Bobby the only one to notice the emphasis on ‘desires’, or was he reading too much into this? No. Logan had told him that Magneto knew John intimately. They had been lovers. 

“Bobby,” Kitty whispered, nudging him nervously. He looked round and noticed a thick layer of frost coating the room, extinguishing the fading fires in the corners. If Pyro’s look had been angry before, it was murderous now. Never put out his fire. It really pissed him off. 

“You should go,” Pyro said, generating a flame ball in his other hand as well. “Now.” He was going to fight them, all because of Magneto’s mind tricks. Because of Magneto, Bobby would never know if John really cared for him.

No. He wouldn’t let the metal-wielding maniac take everything away from him. He quickly threw a beam of ice at Magneto’s face where it was not obscured by the helmet. Before it could make contact though, a metal plate tore from the wall and intercepted the attack, hiding John and Magneto from their view. Mystique raised an eyebrow and brought her arms to her side ready for combat. The sheet of metal was covered with a thick layer of ice, which started to melt. Steam rose off of the metal as water dripped to the floor, almost evaporating before it hit the ground. Then the metal was moved back to its place on the wall, allowing the X-Men to see the flames surrounding John and Magneto. 

Perhaps an offensive was not Bobby’s best idea to date. 

“Foolish child,” said Magneto. “Don’t you realise you are outnumbered?”

“There are four of us and three of you,” Bobby pointed out.

“That depends on your point of view.” Magneto raised a hand towards them. Bobby prepared to shield himself from a frontal assault, but nothing flew at him.

Then he heard Logan’s snarl. He spun around quickly to see the man struggling to keep his own adamantium skeleton still. Oh god. Logan was practically a puppet for Magneto. He watched with horror as the claws extended out of Wolverine’s skin. Then, in a lightning fast move, Logan rammed the claws straight through Kitty’s stomach.

The fact that she had gone incorporeal barely mattered, since she’d been standing so close to Remy. The Cajun fell to the floor as Logan drew back his bloody claws. Kitty screamed. 

Logan stumbled as the pressure on his bones was released, then turned growling to Magneto. “You shouldn’t have done that, bub.”

“And what are you going to do about it?” Mystique asked with a sickening smile.

Logan visibly faltered. There was nothing he could do. There was nothing anyone could do. Kitty was cradling Remy’s bleeding body in her skinny arms and Bobby still couldn’t take his gaze away from the malicious gleam in John’s eyes.

“Johnny, come home. Please. This isn’t you, please Johnny.”

John leaned even closer to Magneto’s tall figure, if that was even possible. “Go back to your playpen Drake. Go back to your stupid little games and never come near me again.”

Bobby stepped closer to him, but Logan’s strong hand on his shoulder pulled him back. “Kid, maybe we ought to just go.”

Bobby stared at him incredulously. “I can’t leave him here!”

“And I can’t stop the bleeding!” Kitty shrieked at him. He stared at her, her pink cardigan covered in bloodstains and Remy losing consciousness on her lap as she pressed her dainty hands to the wound in his stomach. They didn’t have time to try and persuade John that he was still being manipulated. 

Bobby sighed with defeat. “Fine. We’ll leave.”

Logan lifted Remy’s body easily and carried him out of the room. Bobby stopped in the doorway, unable to stop himself from looking back at John, who was now clutching one of Magneto’s aged hands. Kitty grabbed his wrist. “Bobby, come on. We have to go.” She’d wiped the tears from her eyes and left a smear of Remy’s blood over one cheek. 

Bobby nodded and took her hand as they followed Logan back through the winding corridors and up the elevator to the old-fashioned house. They passed Sabertooth in the hallway, who clearly had instructions not to interfere, although he did growl loudly at Wolverine. 

None of them showed any surprise when they saw another car pull up beside theirs outside, driven by Scott and containing the Professor. Scott got out and helped Logan lay Remy down in the back of their car. “One of you will have to ride with us,” said the man with the ruby visor. His visor, not his glasses. They must have known there was a fight coming.

“Logan, you drive,” Xavier’s voice was quietly commanding from inside his car. “Kitty, you may ride with them. Bobby, get in please.”

Bobby gulped and tried to ignore his sick feeling. He’d led them into this. Remy hadn’t wanted to come along, but he’d worried about their safety. Now he was bleeding dry in the back of the car. 

Bobby climbed into the backseat of the car, next to the Professor. They were silent until Scott started driving. Then Bobby couldn’t stand the stifling silence anymore.

“I’m so sorry, Professor. I just wanted him back so badly.” He didn’t even realise he was crying until he tasted a tear. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt but I just… I’m so sorry.”

The Professor sighed and took one of his hands in an attempt to reassure him. 

“It’s dreadful isn’t it Bobby, when our best intentions have the worst consequences.”

*~*~*~*~*

It had been almost a week. Logan had spent the whole time in the danger room. He hadn’t spoken to anyone about the incident. Remy was still in a bad shape in their medical ward. He was getting better, but when Logan stabs something it tends to stay stabbed. Unless it’s Rogue of course, who had given Bobby a piece of her mind on his return. A very vicious piece of her mind, at that. She blamed him for Remy’s injury and Bobby suspected she also blamed him for her lack of visitation rights. She ought to blame Kitty for that, but Bobby honestly didn’t feel like starting an argument.

Kitty had been with Remy almost all the time, only leaving when the staff dragged her out. They seemed to be hitting it off, her and him. That was nice. At least someone would be in a happy relationship.

Bobby had been given extra chores for an indefinite period of time and he’d taken them on without complaint. How could he argue with any sense of justice now? He’d endangered them all. Not just the people he’d taken with him either, now that the Brotherhood had their Pyro back. They had reached an all-time high death and destruction toll when John had worked with them the first time round. Bobby forgave him, unconditionally. It wasn’t his fault, it was Magneto. That bastard warped and corrupted him then unleashed him on humanity. It just wasn’t John.

Bobby knew the teachers were going relatively easy on him and Kitty after what had happened. They weren’t saying anything about his lack of concentration this week in his classes. What could they say? ‘Did you see that anti-mutant riot that the Brotherhood annihilated yesterday? That’s your fault, that is.’ That was unlikely, although he had received too many accusing looks when the front row of protestors had been reduced to ash. He couldn’t watch it anymore and he had gone to his room. He should have gone with the others to try and stop it like they’d asked. Maybe he could have spoken to John again and begged him to come home. But he’d known he couldn’t face seeing Pyro in battle again. It always felt like the closer he got to Pyro, the further he got from John.

He wondered if the Professor knew he spent every class writing out possible ways of getting John back.

He wondered if the Professor cared anymore.


	15. Chapter 15

“Erik,” she cooed sitting as close to him on the settee as she could without being on his lap. “Are you alright? You’ve been looking over those plans for hours.”

He didn’t look at her, just kept staring at the blueprints of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Children. “It would be so much easier and quicker if we had someone capable of controlled explosions.”

She sighed. He was thinking of Pyro. Again. Perhaps they had been spoiled with the boy’s spectacular destructive capabilities. “He would only lose control of it.”

“Not if I was with him.”

“Were you planning on holding his hand on every battlefield?” She didn’t mean to sound so bitter, but he caught the tone anyway.

He smirked at her. “You aren’t jealous, are you my dear?”

“No, of course not. What’s to be jealous of? I’m the one here with you now.”

Erik’s face became neutral and impassive again. Mystique cursed herself for allowing envy to shape her words. But it was so difficult. After what felt like a lifetime of devoting herself to this leader of mutant kind, she was no longer enough for him. Like all men, once he’d had a taste of fire he couldn’t help wanting more. Unlike most men, it would take a higher degree burn to put Erik off of his chosen lover. He was stubborn and resilient. 

But Pyro wasn’t here. He’d gone back to his little friends and abandoned Erik. She understood why he had done it. If she had been in his situation, well, she might not have found the strength of will to escape from the dangerous pleasure.

Her mind flashed back through multiple scenarios of her boss and his young lover, all of them deeply passionate and arousing. Some she had been involved with herself and naturally she liked thinking of them the most. Erik had needed her and Pyro. She couldn’t fault him for wanting everything. She definitely wasn’t averse to the occasional threesome, although she preferred it in the pre-Pyro days when it was just her and Erik. He’d looked at her so fondly back then.

Mystique pushed the plans away and threw a leg over Erik’s so that she could straddle his hips. He smiled softly and tiredly up at her.

“You think I need a break?”

She nodded and leant down to kiss him. He put a finger on her lips to keep a short distance between them.

“Could you do something for me?”

“I can give you anything you need,” she whispered eagerly.

He whispered his request into her blue ear. She nodded. Her skin shifted from blue to pale, her hair from red to blond. Her breasts became flat nipples, the left one with a piercing. Her lips formed a softer pout and her yellow eyes became a dark blueish-grey. She couldn’t savour the look of desire in Erik’s eyes, knowing it was not for her. 

Now he brought her, ‘Pyro‘, down for a kiss. It hurt her to be treated so carefully, as though she was something precious. She would never be touched like this in her own skin. Not by Erik. Possibly not by anyone.

She was turned onto her back, a hand cushioning her head from the armrest of the sofa. Erik’s hands ran over her (Pyro‘s) body, making her tingle. 

After he’d prepared her and began to push in, he ran a hand through Pyro’s hair. “Don’t ever leave me again,” he murmured, lost in this fantasy.

“I won’t,” she whispered as he started to move inside Pyro. It was said in the boy’s voice, but the words were her own.

*

She stood in the kitchen doorway, chewing thoughtfully on a piece of buttered toast as Erik screwed Pyro on the kitchen table. She felt a bit like a prying maid, watching as Pyro whimpered and groaned and pressed his forehead hard against the coolness of the table.

“Is it safe to do that in here?” They ignored her. Erik started kissing the back of Pyro’s neck, around the metal. She thought it was sickeningly sweet and not at all sexy, but the way Pyro gasped said he thought differently. “The gas oven, Erik. He’ll kill us. As fun as death by sex sounds, I’d always hoped I’d be the one having sex at the time.”

“Silence,” Erik barked at her. She winced. 

The pair continued their rutting on the table. She should probably leave and try and get as far from the inevitable explosion as she could. Unfortunately she couldn’t take her eyes off of them. Erik always looked magnificent in sex, domineering and powerful. And Pyro was hardly difficult on the eyes. If Erik was what she wanted from a man, then Pyro was what she wanted from a toy. Easy and eager. It looked like he was nearing his edge, his gasps and moans becoming begs.

“Please, Magneto…”

It was odd, the way Erik preferred his mutant name from Pyro’s lips. Then again, it made a strange sort of sense. Magneto and Pyro sounded much more grand than Erik and John. Maybe it was the ‘o’s. Made them sound like two parts of a whole. Maybe she could call herself Mystiquo. No, that was stupid. She sighed, wondering whether she’d be welcome joining them.

“That’s it, Pyro. Give yourself up to me.”

Probably not. This seemed like one of those private games. Shame, she was getting rather aroused watching them. But she had too much dignity to touch herself here and she didn’t feel like leaving. 

Pyro’s groans reached a new pitch.

“Don’t burn,” Erik said into his ear. Like that had ever worked before.

But as Pyro came, his head falling to rest on his arms, there was a distinct lack of fire. “Good boy,” Erik murmured, thrusting a few more times before reaching his climax. 

After a few moments of still and silent contentment, Erik pulled out and sat back in one of the chairs at the table. Pyro sat up on the table, dazed and smiling. They looked at each other for a while before Erik tugged the young man down into his lap and kissed him roughly.

“I don’t understand,” Mystique said, walking over and seating herself opposite them. “Why didn’t he start a fire?”

“I asked Mesmero to make life a little easier on him,” Erik said, running his fingers through Pyro’s fiery blond hair. “If I ask him not to burn something, he won’t.”

Pyro didn’t seem to mind this, snuggling up to Magneto’s chest like it was the most natural thing in the world. She didn’t want to annoy her master, so she didn’t ask any more questions. Questions like ‘isn’t this what Xavier did?’ or ‘how far exactly does your control extend?’ or the potentially disastrous ‘did Mesmero make him love you?’. She realised that in Erik’s mind, Pyro had been stolen from him and was long overdue for his return. Whether it was Charles Xavier’s fault or Bobby Drake’s, Pyro had been taken from his rightful place at Erik’s side, so Erik had brought him back using whatever means he had to.

“Now we have him back, we can progress with some of the more hazardous missions,” she said for want of casual conversation.

“Yes. That anti-mutant protest was a fair warm-up. How did you like letting loose again?” Erik asked the mutant in his arms.

Pyro’s eyes lit up with the memory. “It was fantastic. I’d like to see how many fuckwits turn up to the next demonstration after seeing what the punishment is.” He put his palm out and flames danced on it in the shape of small fiery people. Or possibly small people on fire. She didn’t ask.

“Hmm,” Erik sounded pleased with Pyro’s malicious enthusiasm. No matter what the older man said, he did enjoy seeing humans hurt. It wasn’t always just for mutant kind, sometimes it was for poor little Erik Lensherr, who had been too young when he’d witnessed death and suffering. “Perhaps we should get some vengeance for you, love,” he said, looking at Pyro thoughtfully.

Mystique fought to keep her face impassive as her heart caved. Love. He’d called him love. Oh, of course it was just a random endearment and she was probably reading too much into it, but when had Erik ever called her love? It hadn’t hurt because Erik didn’t believe in love. But now apparently he did. There were a million other terms he could have used.

“Hey ‘Stique, you paying attention over there?” the insolent child asked with a sneer.

She snapped out of her thoughts. “I’m sorry, my mind was elsewhere.”

Pyro and Magneto shared a smirk and she wondered if that was how her and Magneto had appeared to the X-Men, back when Pyro was John and she was important.

“Well I hate to bore you Mystique, but this is rather important.” She nodded and tried to remember when he’d started talking to her like she was a child. “I think it is time we teach the X-Men that they are not beyond the call of justice. We will punish Charles Xavier for his abuse of power. You can do the honours yourself Pyro, if you wish.”

“Can I fuck with the Iceman’s head?” 

Erik raised an eyebrow. “In what way exactly?”

“I want to see if he wants me. He’s naïve, it’ll be easy to mess him up.”

Mystique was no telepath, but she could see the wheels turning in Erik’s mind. He wanted Bobby Drake to hurt for trying to take Pyro and turn him back into John, but was Pyro ready for that kind of task? What if Mesmero’s conditioning wasn’t up to the task and Bobby broke through to scared little Johnny? But if he could do it, the effects would be deliciously cruel. Would Bobby be capable of fighting Pyro ever again?

“I think it could make things interesting,” Mystique said. And if Bobby did persuade Pyro to go back, well wouldn’t that just be terrible? She tried not to smile at the thought of having Erik to herself again. 

Erik nodded. “It may be useful to heighten his emotions for use against him. Very well. You have my permission to…. How exactly do you plan on breaking him?”

Pyro looked uneasy. “I was thinking I could maybe seduce him?”

Erik’s eyes narrowed. “And go how far?”

Pyro had only experienced penetrative sex with Erik, and Mystique knew her boss would want things to stay that way. She would never use the term megalomaniac to describe him, but she didn’t disagree with people who did.

“I was only going to get him off. I wasn’t going to give myself to him or anything. Not like you have me. You know I wouldn’t.”

Erik’s gaze softened. She wondered if Pyro realised how easily he could gull the Master of Magnetism if only he could learn to falsely use that innocent submissive act. She sighed again. A psychopathic murderer could only be considered innocent in relation to them, really. 

“Alright. You can taunt him with the promise of your body.”

“Oh no,” Pyro said with a grin and a shake of his head. “With Bobby it has to be marriage proposals and undying love. I can do that.”

Pyro took another kiss from her lover, catching her eye as he did so. And maybe Mystique was being paranoid, but as Pyro stuck his middle finger up at her down by his waist where Erik couldn’t see, she wondered if he could fake affection a little too well.


	16. Chapter 16

“I knew you’d come back to me,” Bobby murmured into John’s ear as the brown-haired teen writhed beneath him.

John looked up at him, eyes clouded with lust. “How could I not?” Warm skin pressed up against Bobby’s, desperate for the cool touch. “I love you. I’d never leave you. Not for him.” Heated lips kissed him hard. “Please Bobby, make love to me.”

Bobby groaned and complied, running his hands over sharp hips and soft thighs. “Johnny,” he breathed, hoping he could convey all his feelings in just uttering his name.

“Bobby, I need…”

“Yeah?”

“Bobby, I need you to wake up.”

 

And Bobby’s eyes shot open, startling Kitty who’d been shaking his arm. He took a deep breath and glanced around. He’d crashed on the sofa while watching television. As he sat upright, he grabbed a cushion and tried to put it surreptitiously on his lap to hide the tent in his trousers. “Hey Kitty, what’s up?”

“Remy’s out of the medical room. He’s fit as a fiddle, or so he says. I think really he has to take things easy for a while.” She sat down beside him on the sofa. “Don’t look like that. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Huh?” Bobby wasn’t aware he was looking like anything.

“You’re blaming yourself for everything. Remy, John, you’re thinking it’s all your fault, well it’s not. Nobody’s angry at you for going to extreme lengths to get back someone you care about. And we all wanted John back. It wasn’t just you.”

“Remy wouldn’t have gone if it weren’t…”

“Pssh,” Kitty interrupted him with a wave of her hand. “Of course he would. He acts like that before every mission, all pessimistic and stuff. I think he does it to seem cool and so he can say I told you so if things go wrong. He likes John and he doesn’t regret helping us.”

“He said that?” Bobby asked incredulously.

Kitty nodded. “Yep. And he says he’s willing to help us once we’ve sorted out our next plan.”

“What?”

“Oh come on Bobby, I know you’ve been thinking about it. You must have been. No way could you just get back into the school routine knowing that Magneto is holding John against his will.”

“Well I have been thinking,” but so she didn’t get her hopes up he added quickly, “none of it’s any good though. All my ideas suck. I haven’t got the faintest idea how to get him back. Magneto would never let us get close enough to remove the device from his neck and with that there we can’t get his mind back.”

“We mustn’t give up,” Kitty said. “There has to be something we can do. Me and John were well on our way to being best friends, and…”

“Hey!” Bobby heard himself say, “John was my best friend.”

Kitty looked amused and put her hands up in surrender. “Okay, sorry, we were just casual acquaintances, better?”

Bobby shook his head. “I’m sorry. Since he left I’ve been a little…”

“Heartbroken?”

“Distracted,” Bobby corrected with a glare. How the hell did she know about his thing for John anyway? Did he have it tattooed on his head? Or was it because John liked him everyone automatically assumed that it would be mutual? Then again, someone would have to be insane to turn him down if he offered. Bobby tried not to imagine John offering himself to Magneto right now. “I’ll think of something, okay? I just need time.” Kitty looked uneasy. “What?”

“We might not have time. I spoke to the Professor and he said the longer John’s current state of mind continues undisturbed, the harder it will be to fix.”

“What do you mean ‘undisturbed’?”

“Unaffected by any kind of outside trauma or inner epiphany,” Kitty said in an explanation that sounded like it came straight from the Professor’s lips.

“Oh. What would happen if his mental state was ‘disturbed’?”

Kitty shrugged. “I asked the same thing. Professor said it would depend on how much of an impact the disturbance made. If we like, took away his powers or something, that would probably…”

“Destroy him?”

“Well yeah, damaging consequences aside, it might lead to him throwing off Mesmero’s control because he wouldn’t be Pyro anymore. Or he might blame us for the rest of his life and never speak to us ever again. So, you know, it’s not really a foolproof system.”

“What if someone he cared about died or something?”

“Don’t look at me!” Kitty shrieked.

“I’m talking hypothetically! You really think I’d kill someone to get John back?” Kitty spoke volumes with a silence. “I still have principles you know, John isn’t the be all and end all of my existence.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes so he sighed and stood. “Whatever. I’m going to bed. It’s too late to try and think of something tonight.”

And then the evening went bad to worse, as Rogue was waiting outside his bedroom door. He held out a hand to pull her to her feet. She was wearing gloves again, it was good to see. “How long you been waiting there?”

“Not long,” she said. “I was lookin’ for you but then I saw you talking to Kitty and I decided not to interrupt.”

“We were just talking about nothing, you should have said something.”

“Well I thought…” she trailed off. Then Bobby realised what she had thought.

“Me and Kitty aren’t dating.”

“I just assumed since John left…”

“Her and John weren’t dating.” It was kind of funny to see her confusion.

“No?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Bobby leant past her and put his hand on the door handle, but Rogue grabbed his shoulder. “Bobby, ya know there’s that dance on this weekend?”

It hadn’t quite escaped his attention, but details about it were currently sparse in the brain of Bobby. “Um, yeah?”

“I was wonderin’ if…” Rogue looked down at her black shoes timidly, “you’d be interested in goin’ with me?”

What the…. “But you broke up with me.”

“Yeah, I was thinkin’ I might have been a li’l hasty.”

Bobby opened his door and had to do a double-take. John was sleeping on his bed. Rogue couldn’t see into the room for her angle, and when she moved around him to try and see Bobby’s expression, he shoved her away. She couldn’t be allowed to see! 

“Bobby!”

“I know you were hasty but that’s just something you’re going to have to deal with,” Bobby said quickly, hurrying into the room and slamming the door behind him.

“Ow! Bobby, what is wrong with you!?!”

He didn’t answer, just bolted the door and walked over to the bed. It was definitely John. He looked like an angel when he slept.

“Bobby Drake! Open this door or never speak to me again!”

“We’ll talk later Rogue,” he called over to the door, not taking his eyes off of John as he began to stir. What was he doing here?

“Not if you don’t open this door right now!”

He didn’t answer and as John started to rub his eyes sleepily, he heard Rogue huff and stomp away down the corridor. Then John saw him. “Oh, hey Bobby.”

“Hey? That’s all you’ve got to say?”

John sighed and it sounded so sad. But Bobby resisted the urge to hug him until he knew why he was here. “I did consider opening with ‘I couldn’t bear missing you’, but I thought it might scare you away.”

Bobby couldn’t believe what he was hearing and he moved closer. “You missed me?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” John said with a wry smile.

“I don’t know about that,” Bobby whispered, leaning in for a kiss.

This was far better than their drunken moment, because it was mutual. And wow, John could really kiss when he was sober. After not long enough, they pulled apart, trying to catch their breath and staring with shy amazement into each other’s eyes.

“I shouldn’t be here,” John whispered, looking nervous.

“Yes you should,” Bobby replied, pulling him in for another kiss. This time John moved up against him while their lips were pressing together, making Bobby wrap his arms around him and try to hold him even closer.

This time when they pulled apart, they were barely apart at all. John was pretty much in Bobby’s lap and their faces weren’t even an inch apart. “Magneto will kill me…”

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you,” Bobby said sincerely. He could feel John’s warmth all over, heating his blood and melting him.

“Promise?” John asked, eyes wide.

“Promise,” Bobby breathed. “Just stay with me and you’ll be fine.”

John moved in his lap, coaxing a groan from Bobby’s throat. Then he pulled away, making Bobby tug him back. “Where you going?”

John gestured towards Bobby’s crotch. “I was going to take care of that for you.”

Bobby shook his head and pushed John slowly back until the warm teen was laying beneath him, breathing heavily. “I want to make love to you, Johnny.”

John looked conflicted, even as he unbuttoned Bobby‘s shirt. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not?” Bobby started undoing the fastenings on John’s black jeans.

John pushed Bobby‘s shirt off of his shoulders. “I… I… Magneto’s screwed me, you know? I don’t know if he’s safe or…” 

Bobby silenced him with a finger and pulled away John‘s trousers. “We’d take precautions.”

“You don’t mind?” John asked, unzipping Bobby’s pants. “I thought you’d be one for virgins in white dresses.”

Bobby laughed. “For a while I thought I would be too. Then you showed up. I guess you enjoy messing with people.” He unbuttoned John’s red shirt, trying not to drool on the pale skin revealed to him.

John smiled and trailed thin fingers down Bobby’s cheek. “You have no idea.” He leant in for another kiss. This one was slow and searching. When he pulled back, John looked vaguely resigned. “Alright. You can make love to me Bobby.”

The nerves almost cancelled out the arousal that Bobby felt on hearing those words. “Thank you,” he whispered, giving John a peck on the forehead as he reached over to the top drawer for lubricant and condoms. The lubricant was actually in the drawer for sorting out ice-related sticking issues, but John didn’t need to know that.

He put some on one finger, then hesitated before pushing it in. “You sure this is okay?”

John laughed unexpectedly. “Bobby, you’re making me nervous, man. Just,” he reached down and grabbed Bobby’s wrist, pushing the outstretched finger into himself slowly but firmly. He moaned and released Bobby’s hand. “Okay, you can do another. I told you, I’ve done this enough.”

“Once without me is more than enough,” Bobby murmured, making John sigh. But as he pushed in another finger, he found he couldn’t bear the jealousy that Magneto had done just this to his John. He watched distantly as two of his fingers were accommodated.

“Bobby, stop thinking,” John said, his breathing heavy and his eyes lusty.

“How can you let him do this?” Bobby said, stopping the movement and looking John directly in the eye. 

“He doesn’t do this. Not like you. Believe me, he doesn’t do this like you do.” John pulled him up for a sweet kiss. It was enough to reassure him. After all, he couldn’t possibly kiss Magneto like that, could he? 

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” John soothed, running a hand through Bobby’ hair. “Just keep going.”

“Another?” John nodded. Bobby used more lubricant and slipped in another finger. Still fine. Maybe he should…

John let out a noise suspiciously like a squeak as Bobby put four fingers in. “Sorry,” Bobby grinned sheepishly, about to remove them.

John grabbed his wrist and held him in place, gasping. “You’re apologising too much. Just… give it a sec.” He moved against Bobby’s fingers, eyes closing as he concentrated on the pleasure. This was so much more intense than his dream. John was riding his hand, making small sexy noises. Eventually, he leant back again. “Okay… right… you might want to do something or I’m coming without you.”

Bobby desperately wanted to see John climax, but he wanted to claim back his John so badly that he was almost finished readying himself before he even realised he was putting on the condom and lubricant. It was tricky business with the way John was sucking on his neck and his nipple in turn. It should be a danger room challenge - defeat your opponent with Pyro licking and nibbling your skin.

He hesitated again at the critical point. “You’re sure…”

“Yes Bobby, I’m sure, I’m desperately sure. Please…”

Bobby pushed slowly into his best friend and wondered if there was anything on this Earth that felt so good and perfect. “Oh, Johnny…”

“Yeah,” John’s hot arms wrapped around him, pulling him closer, “yeah Bobby, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

Bobby gasped as his body heated up to a level it had never reached before. Everything felt so good. And it felt even better because it was John, his John, he’d come back and everything was going to be okay. “I love you John, I love you so much…”

With his tongue on John’s nipples, he couldn’t see his lover’s expression at the declaration, nor did he care when it wasn’t returned to him. John pulled him up by his hair for a kiss. This time it was passionate and frantic, tongues moving in time with Bobby’s thrusts. 

Soon, John was moaning incessantly and incoherently, pushing his hips up to meet Bobby, although the rhythm was way off. “Bobby, I’m gonna…”

Bobby dropped his elbows either side of his lover so he could see John’s face close up. He wasn’t disappointed. As John arched beneath him, almost pushing him back, his eyes slipped shut and he mouthed Bobby’s name over and over, although no noise was made. The beauty of it brought Bobby to orgasm and he throbbed inside John, collapsing onto the smaller boy with exhaustion and bliss taking over.

“Wow,” he murmured as John stroked his hair fondly. “That was really… wow.”

“Mmm,” John said. “Think you could move a bit? I can’t really breathe.”

“Oh, sorry,” Bobby said, moving to the side and noticing for the first time that they were all sticky with John’s come.

“You’re apologising too much,” John said with a smile.

“Yeah, sor…” a hand clamped over his mouth. Bobby pulled John’s hand away and kissed his palm gently. “I do love you, you know.”

John nodded with a smile. “I know you do.”

It didn’t bother Bobby that John couldn’t return the sentiment yet. He knew the other boy had been through a whole lot of crap in his life. Things like love and trust that they all took for granted just didn’t come easily to Johnny. He’d learn.

“I going to clean up. I’m all ugh.”

John grinned. “Yeah, you look distinctly unvirginial. What would Summers say if he saw you now?”

“He’d blame you,” Bobby retorted as he went to the bathroom and ran some warm water and threw away the condom and all manner of post-sex clean-freak things. After he felt less gross, he went back into the bedroom and dropped a wet cloth on John’s chest as he lay down next to him. John yelped. “Oh yeah, cloth’s a bit cold.” He lay down and closed his eyes. “Sorry.”

“Bobby, please for fuck’s sake,” a sharp pain pricked his neck, “just stop fucking apologising.”

Bobby reached up to his neck just as John pulled away with a syringe in hand. “What?”

But things started to blur before he could get his question out, and the last thing he felt was John’s soft lips before everything went dark.


	17. Chapter 17

John watched Bobby’s drug-induced sleep for about ten minutes, which was ten minutes more than he should have done. But for some reason it was difficult to pull away. The sex had been nice. Not that Magneto had ever really truly harmed him, but there was usually some discomfort or pain throughout that made things a little intense. With Bobby, things had been intense for some other reason that he couldn’t put his finger on.

Pyro started to locate his clothes and got dressed. He hadn’t set anything on fire, either. That was weird. Without Magneto telling him not to burn things, he should have by all rights burned the room down. They hadn’t worried about that happening because Pyro was not supposed to be having sex with Bobby.

His heart pounded as he pulled the ajar door fully open and glanced up and down the hall. Nobody there. Good. What had he been thinking? If Magneto had caught him, he would have been in so much trouble!

John fished the lighter out of his pocket as he headed down the hall. He started flicking it open and closed nervously. It just hadn’t been humanly possible (and there was a phrase he needed to stop using) to say no to Bobby. Poor naïve Bobby Drake who seemed to think he was something precious for all the wrong reasons.

At least Magneto knew what Pyro was. He knew he was a weapon, a deadly weapon that sometimes needed a hug. At least when Magneto said he loved him he knew why. Stupid Iceman didn’t have a fucking clue. He didn’t know about the killings and the fires and the dirty, kinky sex. He wouldn’t even want to know and Pyro didn’t want to tell him.

A door opened behind him and he spun around with a ball of flame ready. Him and Rogue stared at each other, neither knowing quite what to do. Why was he hesitating? He should burn her before she jeopardised the whole plan!

“John? What are you doing here?”

Her voice grated on John’s brain as he recalled all the times she’d spoken to him or Bobby, dragging Bobby away from him saying ‘oh come on Bobby, John doesn’t need ya like I do’ or simply ‘me and Bobby were wonderin’ if we could have some alone time.’ He wondered how many times she must have wished him dead, whenever he made Bobby blush or made a dig about her zombie flesh.

Before she could move, Pyro flicked open the lighter and set her aflame. She screamed and threw herself to the floor, rolling around trying to put out the blaze. As the sounds of more doors opening reached his ear, Pyro turned and legged it down the hall. He realised that he’d used his lighter out of habit, and angrily shoved it back in his pocket. He didn’t need that crutch for his mutant nature anymore. He was fire incarnate now.

As he reached the top of the stairs, he was roughly tackled to the ground. Him and his attacker skidded at least a metre across the carpet before stopping. He felt a slight carpet burn developing on his hip where his jeans had slipped down a little. He tried to get up, but his head was being pressed into the floor.

“Listen to me,” Wolverine’s gruff voice said in his ear. “I know you could burn me off of you right now. I know you’re capable of giving me burns that would take longer than five minutes to heal. I just want you to know why you’re doing this. Mesmero has been messing with your head kid, like Xavier did. Only he’s gone and done the opposite. Xavier tried to repress your emotions, Mesmero’s amplifying ‘em.”

“You think I don’t have reasons to be this angry at you?” Pyro asked, disbelieving.

“Not Bobby and Rogue. What have they ever done to you? Now Bobby’s out cold and Rogue’s critical in the med-room.”

Pyro pushed back again and Logan let him sit up. Pyro rubbed at his jaw where it had been pressed against the thin carpet. “Bobby made me feel like a nothing here. Besides, I haven’t hurt him. I gave him what he wanted then put him to sleep. He’ll be fine. I was charitable.”

Logan’s scrutiny was irritating. “And Rogue?”

A priceless portrait on the wall beside them burst into flame and Pyro thought his eyes might be burning from the inside. He didn‘t even recognise his own voice when he spoke, it was so warped with hatred. “Rogue still hasn’t got what she deserves.”

“She wants Remy now, you know. If you came back, Bobby could be all yours.”

Pyro jumped to his feet. “Why don’t you people get it!?! I don’t want to be here, I don’t want Bobby and… and…” he trailed off, unable to think of further fuel for his denial. 

So he blasted Wolverine down the stairs with a sudden explosion of fire. He heard a crack as the man landed. He hoped it was his head, but as he descended the stairs he saw a dent and a split in the floorboard. Of course, adamantium. Using human technology was so cheating. 

“Nicely done,” Mystique’s cool voice carried over to him from the door. “I was considering lending you a hand but as with Rogue and Iceman, you handled the situation remarkably.”

Pyro walked over to her slowly. “You’ve been watching me?”

“Of course. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, would we Pyro?” Her tone was sugary-sweet, like chocolate poison.

“What did you see?”

“Well lovely Marie is going to find it a lot easier to wrap herself up and not touch things.”

“I meant with Bobby,” Pyro said through gritted teeth. He hated it when she toyed with him.

“I’m afraid I report to Erik,” she said with a vicious smile, “not little boys.”

Without thinking, a fire appeared in his hand. She was going to destroy everything and he couldn’t let that happen. “What did you see, you conniving bitch?”

“Pyro?”

The flame vanished instantly and he turned to Magneto, who had just emerged from one of the downstairs corridors. The older man approached him, looking wary.

“What on Earth are you doing?”

He thought fast. “I did my mission as you asked and seduced Iceman. Then Rogue interfered and I burned her. I don’t think she’s dead though.” Unfortunately. “Then I fought the Wolverine, he’s over there.” He pointed to the charred man at the foot of the stairs. “Then Mystique started insinuating that I’d done something I shouldn’t with Bobby and I didn’t want her to tell you that I had when I hadn’t and…”

A finger on his lips silenced him. “Calm down my dear. Are you telling me that you did not have sex with Iceman?”

“I swear I didn’t,” Pyro said, eyes bright with the desire for Magneto’s belief.

“If you insist.” The finger trailed up his cheek and brushed blond hair back behind his ear. “I’m sure you will be pained to hear that Sabertooth and Toad have been captured.” Pyro fought a grin.

Mystique spoke up behind them. “Should we go and fetch them?”

“No. This is the final straw. Let the X-Men deal with the burden. Scarlet Witch has completed her destruction of Cerebro and Quicksilver has procured transport. I have accomplished what I came to do. We shall move on to the hangar.”

“He scored the X-jet?”

“It’s hardly a difficult task when one moves so fast,” Magneto said with a shrug. He was not so easily impressed. Especially not by his son. “Go ahead of us, Pyro. Torch anyone or anything in your way.”

He walked ahead of them, grateful for the responsibility at first, then realised upon hearing murmured voices behind him that he was only given this duty so they could talk about him. He tried to catch what they were saying as his stomach churned.

“I have the security footage,” he heard Mystique’s insistent whisper.

“I don’t believe you,” Magneto’s voice murmured back.

“I can show it to you!” Her whisper became more frantic.

“For all I know, it could be you whoring yourself to the Iceman in an attempt to discredit Pyro. I won’t even dignify your attempt with my attention.” Pyro felt the guilt swelling up inside.

“How can you say that, Erik? You really do believe everything he says, don’t you?” Now she sounded disgusted and Pyro knew if he looked round, she’d be wearing a sneer.

“I have good reason. Mesmero made sure that he cannot lie to me.” That whisper had been so quiet that Pyro could barely make it out.

Mesmero had made sure? He’d taken away his ability to lie? Pyro was nearly outraged to the point of an act of stupidity when he realised that he had actually lied to Magneto. So had Mesmero lied? Or had he just not been any good at his task? It didn’t matter. Magneto had still tried to take his freedom away. First it would be his ability to lie, next it would be his ability to burn. Whenever it suited people to make him different, they would. Like he was some kind of fucking doll that they could dress up and play games with.

They got to the jet without anyone in their way, although there were moments when they heard groups of X-Men moving nearby. It was kind of like playing laser-quest. 

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch raised the ramp once everyone was on board. Mystique took Pietro’s seat since nobody in their right mind let Quicksilver near the control panel of a plane. The pale boy, who was roughly John’s age, sat down beside him as Magneto went to the front of the plane. John started playing with his lighter and didn’t look up at the other teen. Something about Pietro made him uneasy. Still, no reason to be rude to the boss’ son.

“So Speedy, how many you kill this evening?”

Pietro waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “Only one. I wasn’t trying or anything, so I’m not that bothered. Injured a few more, like.”

“Really? Anyone I know?”

“Gave Shadowcat a nasty crack on the head.” John nodded impassively and ignored the twinge of guilt. “Snatched Cyclops’ shades, caused some nice property damage and gave Storm a bit of a bruise. All in one go,” he sniggered as he twirled the ruby glasses around in his thin fingers.

“Who’d you kill?”

“Nightcrawler, the blue freak. Thought he could teleport faster than I could move. Pfft, as if.”

John’s mind conjured up an image of a timid blue mutant from a Munich Circus, or possibly The Munich Circus. He didn’t know and he probably never would. Not that it mattered on the scale of things. Storm liked the freak though, she’d be furious and out for revenge.

John figured she probably deserved it.


	18. Chapter 18

“Your father will kill us,” Pyro said into Pietro’s neck, gently biting at the pale skin.

“It’s worth it,” Pietro whispered. “Besides, he’s away for the whole week, we won’t get caught.” He wouldn’t dream of even trying this if there was the slightest chance his father would see. That would hardly be conducive to being the favoured child.

But how could he resist? Pyro pressed him back into the sofa. “You’re wrong to make me want this.”

Pietro hushed him and pressed their lips together. Pyro was so hot to the touch it almost burnt to rub a hand up under the other teen’s shirt. But some like it hot, and Pietro was one of them. “Isn’t it nice to have what you want for a change?”

Pyro shook his head, starting to undo Pietro’s tight jeans with nimble fingers. “I do get what I want.”

“Nuh-uh, you get told what you want. My father’s sweet little pet.”

Pyro pressed his forearm hard against Pietro’s neck, holding him down roughly. “I’m nobody’s pet. You’re the one who’s daddy’s little treasure. Or at least that’s what you want.”

“I want you, Pyro. I want you to start taking what you want instead of surrendering to them. You’re too good for that.” The words were slightly choked until Pyro released the pressure on Pietro’s throat.

The pyromaniac leant in so his lips were almost touching Pietro’s and whispered “you. It’s you I want.”

“Then take what you want,” Pietro said, holding his hands up above his head in surrender.

“Mmm, I’ll do that.” Pyro started tugging Pietro’s jeans down.

 

Fuck, he always woke up there. 

Pietro sat up in his bed and rubbed at his tired blue eyes. That damn dream was making him desperately wish his mutation would let him have at least ten minutes more sleep. But no, Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, was only allowed to have a few minutes dreaming at a time before his body was re-energized. Having half the sleep of everyone else meant he only had half the dreams everyone else had. It wasn’t fair. If only the dream would start from the point it left off at…

There was a knock on his door. He answered it before the second sound. It was Pyro in his jeans and no shirt, sweet. Made Pietro extremely glad he’d chosen to wear his satiny blue pyjamas instead of the silky black ones because the silky black ones were nowhere near as cute on him as the satiny blue ones and why the hell wasn’t Pyro checking him out yet in his cute pyjamas?

“Morning Quickie, your daddy dearest wants to see you in the briefing room, A.S.A.P.” Now Pyro was leaving? But… the pyjamas! He hadn’t even looked!

Pietro grabbed the boy’s bare arm, happily noting the warmth of his skin. Just like his dream. “Do you know what it’s about, Pyro?”

The teen shrugged and started playing with his lighter. “Probably re-con. He wants to make sure he’s succeeded and you’re the best one to find out.” Pyro sighed. “Take that smug grin off your face. It’s not like you did much to help last night.”

“What?” Pietro was affronted. He’d been extremely helpful in last night’s attack! “I took down Storm, Cyclops, Shadowcat, and I even killed that Nightcrawler guy!”

“That’s the problem. Magneto says you were out of line killing someone. Says you went beyond orders.”

“I was taking initiative! It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve killed for our plans. He doesn’t normally complain.”

Pyro shrugged. Why was his attention always on that stupid little flame? It should be on his cute pyjama-clad ass! “I think to Magneto there’s a difference between killing innocent bystander human scum and murdering X-Men in their home.”

“But I…”

“Don’t defend yourself to me, I don’t give a fuck.” Still flicking the lighter on and off. “You’ll have to talk it out with him. He’s the one who’s worried. You know you could massacre the whole lot of them for all I care.”

“But you didn’t do much, did you?” 

One glance up at him before stormy eyes turned back to the flickering light. “What are you talking about? I roasted Rogue, smacked the Wolverine one…”

“Got fucked by the Iceman.”

Pietro saw the hand reach for his neck but not in slow-motion, just in real time that was practically slow-motion for him. He didn’t dodge it and allowed Pyro to shove him against the wall. The blond got right up to his face and he felt the air against his cheek. Ergh, morning breath. Must have just climbed out of father’s bed. Sickening. “What did you say? Have you been talking to Mystique?”

“No, but I heard she has the whole thing on tape. I thought about taking a look. After all, I didn’t see the whole thing.” Just a bit of Pyro playing whore and doing it well. 

Pyro let up his grip a little on Pietro’s neck. “You know he won’t believe you.”

“Please,” Pietro put on his best innocent expression, “you think I’d tell him? That hurts. I thought we were friends John, that means we don’t sell each other out.”

Pyro’s disbelieving laugh did actually hurt Pietro’s feelings, though he’d never admit it. “Give me a break Quicksilver. You’d sell out your own sister if you thought it would help.”

“You take that back,” Pietro heard himself snarl. He’d never, ever hurt Wanda. EVER. Not on purpose. Not for his father. She was the only person to ever give a damn about him and he would never throw that back in her face.

Pyro must have seen he meant business, because he shrugged and tried to look cool. “Fine, whatever. You might not sell her out, but you’d give me up in a heartbeat.”

“I could accomplish a lot more than that in a heartbeat,” Pietro smirked. He couldn’t help it.

“Whatever man. You promise not to tell your father? He wouldn’t believe you anyway. He thinks I’m under his control.”

“Why aren’t you?” Pietro had heard all about Mesmero’s brainwashing from Mystique. The blue woman seemed madly jealous and it was only a matter of time before something bad happened.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think it was Iceman?”

“What do you mean?” Pyro looked confused.

“Well, you like him, don’t you? Why else would you risk father’s wrath? Maybe being with him triggered something inside you that couldn’t be suppressed. There’s only so much psychics can hold back you know, even the strong ones like Xavier have problems in the long run. Say psychic blocks are like a box. Now Mesmero only made the box so big.” Pietro mimed holding an average sized box. “In that box go the things my father doesn’t like, such as disobedience, guilt, love for Iceman, stuff like that. Now that’s fine and all at first, but the box starts to get full as those feelings grow. He puts you up against the X-Men and your mind tries to tell you, ‘hang on, this is the wrong thing to do’ and the feeling of guilt grows within the psychic box. Then you sleep with Iceman and the explosion of affection in relation to that is too much and the box breaks. Everything spills out. It’s not like you don’t feel inclined to obey father anymore, you just also feel an inclination to disobey.”

Pyro stared at him for a painstakingly long moment. “In short?”

“In short, you’re free to make your own decisions again.” Like the decision to look at your boss’ son’s cute ass. Go on….

“Huh. You’re not as dumb as I though you were, you know that?”

“Why did you think I was dumb? I’m a fucking genius!” Again, Pietro tried to tame his ego as vanity was probably not the way to Pyro’s heart.

“Don’t know. You act a bit like a ditz. It doesn’t matter. Listen, you ought to get to your father. He’s gonna give you a hard time for being late already.”

Pyro started to walk back to his and Magneto’s bedroom. Pietro grabbed him again. “Just answer me one thing.”

Pyro sighed. “Alright, what?”

“Did you feel bad when we hurt them?”

“You shouldn’t have killed Kurt. And when you hurt Kitty…”

“Not badly. Concussion at the worst.”

“Good.”

“And Rogue? What about her?”

“She deserved worse. If I’d had the time…” A small flame appeared in Pyro’s palm to demonstrate his unforgiving fury.

“So why are you still here if you’re sorry for most of them?”

“You said one question,” Pyro said, extinguishing the fire by clenching his fist. “I answered you. You’re lucky you got that much. Now fuck off before Magneto thinks I didn’t deliver the message.” Pietro sighed and turned his back as the pyromaniac headed away. “Cute pyjamas, by the way,” Pyro called as he disappeared round the corner.

Pietro grinned as he dressed in seconds. “Yeah, I still got it.”

His grin faded as he sped down the corridor to the briefing room. He took the stairs, the elevator was way too slow. From what Pyro had said, it sounded like father was mad at him again. Not that it took much to invoke his wrath. Apparently just being Pietro Maximoff was enough of a sin.

His father barely glanced at him as Pietro skidded to a halt beside the man. It seemed that the window was a far more preferable alternative to looking at his failure of a son. 

“Re-con.”

“On the X-Men?” Obvious to most, but best to double-check orders anyway.

“Yes. Also,” a faint frown was visible in the gap of the helmet, “I want you to observe Brotherhood members throughout the day.”

“Sir?” Spying on their own people wasn’t a strange task, but everyone?

“Mystique, Scarlet Witch,” there was a pause, “Pyro. I want them all observed for strange behaviour.”

“Anything in particular?”

“Mystique and Pyro in particular. Don’t worry so much about your sister, she is not of much concern to me at the moment.”

“Is this…” was it worth the risk to make Pyro grateful? It was. “Is this about the Pyro-Iceman incident?”

His father finally turned to face him. “I was not aware of any incident.”

Oh, so it was going to be one of those conversations. Might as well speak, or he’d only end up on the Rack or something. “Pyro was telling me that there have been vicious rumours concerning his mission the other evening. You know, the one to render Iceman incompetent?”

“I am aware of the mission, Quicksilver. I authorised it. Iceman is the most efficient measure against Pyro. Although I doubt he is powerful enough to truly defeat him now that Pyro has grown stronger, I still thought it wise to take action against him.”

“So now Iceman will feel incapable of fighting with Pyro?”

“The X-Men are weak. They find it difficult to face foes who were once allies. Also, I hope that Iceman will get the message that Pyro always returns to me. He cannot be won back to their team.”

“But why not send Mystique to do the job in his form?”

“Pyro requested the job for himself. I saw no problem with it. Do you have a problem concerning the matter?”

“No, that’s what I had to say. I happened to be in the vicinity when Pyro was carrying out his mission.” His father’s raised eyebrow was the only comment on Pietro’s voyeurism. “There was nothing untoward going on. Pyro merely did his job. Anything you hear to the contrary is malicious slander.”

He tried not to display the satisfaction as his father smiled at him. “That is good to hear. I had no doubts of course, but further validation of a truth is always acceptable. Thank you Pietro. Now, on with your task. I must ask you observe the reactions of Ororo Munroe to the death of her lover.”

“What? She was sleeping with the blue freak? Isn’t that bestiality?”

“Tut, tut, Pietro. I could bring up some of your more unsavoury activities, but I feel degraded just speaking some of them.” The disgusted tone erased the pleasant one of before. Pietro winced. He could never keep his behaviour away from his father’s ears and he lacked the willpower to be a good boy.

“So you want me to make sure she’s not about to rip our heads off?”

“If you could. You were the one to cause the trouble, after all.”

Pietro bowed his head and avoided the stern gaze. “Sorry sir.”

“Yes, you always are. Can’t you complete one mission without giving into barbaric behaviour? You do not show us to be the superior species. You show us to be animals.” The man turned back to the window. “But this is not the time. Check on Charles too. I had a chat with him and I‘d like to know if it had the desired effect. Go and observe them. It’s all you’re good for. ”

Pietro nodded, even though his father wasn’t looking, and sped out of the room, towards the Xavier Institute. Another day, another dig at his abilities. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to it by now, but it still stung. Whatever he did to try and impress his father, it was never enough. No reason to stop trying though. He pressed his fingers to the device on the back of his neck, checking it was still there. Running into Xavier’s house without it would have been the dumbest thing he’d done yet.

His first stop was the medical ward, room one. The Iceman was sitting on the edge of Rogue’s bed. He looked groggy, probably still feeling the effects of the strong sedative that Pyro slipped him late last night. Rogue had bandages all over her arms, chest and face. She probably had some on her legs, but the blankets obstructed his view from behind the cabinet in the corner. Iceman was holding one of her bandaged hands. 

“They say that the scarring will be barely visible since Mr Logan lent you some of his healing power. The bandages are just a precaution.” Bad news for Johnny boy.

The girl ripped the bandage off of her face. The skin was peeling slightly around her forehead and her face looked red and raw. But a healing kind of red. That was a shame. “Where were you, Bobby? You must have heard me screaming.”

“John sedated me. He got in my room and caught me by surprise. I was out cold by the time he attacked you,” Iceman said apologetically.

Rogue stared at him for a few moments, clearly working something out. “But how could he have snuck up on you? You closed your door when I…” she put a bandaged hand to her mouth. “Oh my God.”

“What?”

She snatched her mummified hand from his grip. “He was there when I was talking to you! That’s why you closed the door on me! You didn’t want me to know!”

Like a good, honest little X-Man, Iceman didn’t deny it, he just looked away. “Rogue…”

“You call him John but you can’t call me Marie? When I’m your girlfriend and he’s the enemy?”

Iceman shook his head. “You’re not my girlfriend anymore and he’s not the enemy.” Interesting…

Rogue looked furious. “Not the enemy?!? Bobby, look at me! I’m even more of a freak than before!” Tears started to spill down her cheeks and she swiped at them, trying to get the saltwater off of her sensitive skin. Eventually she grabbed the blanket and dabbed at her eyes.

“You’ll be fine though. Logan said he’ll come in later and you can borrow some healing again. As soon as he’s got the energy.”

“Bobby, that doesn’t change the fact that JOHN SET ME ON FIRE! He set me on fire because you let him into the house!” Pietro winced as she yelled. This was getting irritating. He decided to depart.

Next stop, room two of the medical ward. Shadowcat and Gambit. The girl had stitches across her eyebrow where he had smashed her into the wall. Serves her right for jumping out of it in the first place. He sat behind a pile of bed-sheets in the corner. Probably wasn’t necessary to stay here long.

“So you and Rogue aren’t a couple anymore?”

“I didn’t want to be a couple wit’ her in the first place, cheri. I know I hurt ya, doin’ those things with her. I’m willin’ to do anything to make it up to you.”

“Just… tell me it’s me you want.”

“Of course it’s you I want, Kitty. You’re beautiful and when I saw you’d been hurt I lost it. You were bleedin’ so much and I thought ‘you’ve done it now Gambit, you’ve lost your chance’. I thought I’d never be able to show ya how much I love ya.” Bleurgh, he couldn’t listen to this saccharine shit anymore. 

Next room was Miss Munroe, aka Storm. He couldn’t get in for the tornado. He stood in the doorway, terrified by the sheer power contained in the room. Through the snow, rain, hail and fog, he could just about make out her form curled up on the bed. He could hear her screaming with rage and grief above the howling wind. It was one of those moments where he respectfully wished he wasn’t guilt-free for his crimes.

She looked up when she realised the door was open. They stared at each other for an excruciatingly long moment. Was she going to speak to him?

A bolt of lightning struck him, sending him all the way down the hall. Ouch, fuck, shit, ouch. Still feeling the shocks in his system, Pietro ran out of the medical wing and up to the dormitories, finding a closet in someone’s room to hide in. He sat down and rested his head on his knees. Holy crap, that woman was tough. He tried to catch his breath. His shoes were smoking. He was lucky to be alive. Then he heard voices in the room he’d hidden in. He put his ear to the door.

“Was it him?” Cyclops.

“It’d be pretty dumb to show his face here so soon.” Wolverine.

“I think she was hallucinating. She hasn’t slept since the incident.” Xavier. “She’s been exhausting herself, unable to control her powers due to her physical and emotional pain.”

“Why don’t you calm her?” The question was unusually accusative, from Cyclops.

“I…feel uncomfortable with that on an ethical level,” was Xavier’s response. Now, was that because of his mistake with Pyro, or was something else contributing to that decision? 

“You’ve done it for less.” Wolverine sounded drained. Oh right, he’d been helping Rogue heal.

“Yes, I have and I was wrong to do so. I have spoken to someone concerning that matter and we came to the conclusion that it was a gross abuse of power. I must be more careful or we will face more incidents like last night.”

“That’s what last night was about?” Cyclops sounded irate. “To teach us a lesson because we failed to turn Pyro into a decent human being?” Pietro seethed in the closet. Pyro was already vastly better than ‘decent’. “Is that why Kurt died? To prove a damn point?!?”

“Kurt died because Magneto brought Quicksilver into this. Pietro Maximoff is a deeply troubled boy. I’ve been worried about him for some time now.” Pietro almost vibrated with rage. He was not a charity case! He did not ask for sympathy from anyone. He didn’t need their fucking pity.

“Don’t worry about that little psychopath. Worry about whether Kitty’s got brain damage. Worry about whether my healing power’s good enough to save Rogue’s pretty skin. Worry about Bobby’s damn sanity. The kid’s losing it, Charles. You know he saw John last night.”

“Yes, he says he was caught by surprise and he was drugged.”

“He’s still wearing the metal thing then, because that’s total bullshit.”

“What are you trying to say?” Cyclops expressed the confusion of himself and Xavier.

“The kid reeked of sex and John. The only way he was caught by surprise is by John turning on him during an intimate moment.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Then Cyclops spoke. “So you’re telling me that Bobby, our top student and all-round popular guy…”

“Screwed a Brotherhood member last night? Yeah, guess I am, Scott.” Pietro sensed an underlying animosity there, but before anything could come of it, Xavier spoke up.

“Gentlemen, please. We will have to trust Bobby to make the right choice when the time comes. Disturbing as it is, we are not here to discuss Bobby Drake’s sexual preferences. We are here to talk about my decision.”

“What decision, Professor?”

“I am sending the children home. Only those with a certain level of physical training will remain. I feel I have been kidding myself since the Stryker incident.”

“What are you talking about?” Wolverine sounded confused.

“This is no longer a school. That should have been clear the moment it was invaded by Stryker’s men. This is viewed as a mutant base of operations and it is treated as one by the rest of the world. No matter what we choose to call it, we possess a fighter jet. We own military training equipment beneath the mansion. Whether we are training in fighting skills for our own defence or not, we are still training teenagers for war. The Brotherhood attack last night just made that clearer. This is no school. This is the base for the X-Men, champions of human and mutant co-existence. It is not the safe haven that I dreamed of. Until I can make it a true sanctuary, mutant children will be safer elsewhere.”

“You mean…”

Pietro listened, rapt with attention as Xavier replied.

“Yes. I am no longer teaching mutants. As of this conversation, the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters will be closed. Indefinitely.”


	19. Chapter 19

He couldn’t find John. The corridors were crowded as students ran screaming for their lives. The mansion was being invaded and nobody knew what was going on and he couldn’t find John.

Then he saw the pyro-kinetic run in at the end of the hall in his shorts and t-shirt that he wore to bed. His hair was untidy and fell lovably over his eyes.

“John!”

The boy skidded to a halt as he saw Bobby and ran over to him. Bobby kissed him quickly.

“Where’s Rogue?”

John shrugged, not looking at all bothered. “Does it matter?”

Bobby took another glance at the chaos around them. Marie was a tough girl, she could look after herself. “No, it doesn’t matter. Come on.”

Then Quicksilver jumped out at them, accompanied by William Stryker’s soldiers. Without thinking about it for more than a second, Bobby thrust out a hand and froze them all in thick blocks of ice. He tugged at John’s hand and ran with the boy down the hall. They had to get out of there.

“Bobby! John! Over here!”

Looking in the direction of Kitty’s voice, he saw her and Gambit standing by a secret passage entrance in the wall. For some reason, Kitty was wearing a prom dress and Gambit was in a tux. He’d ask later, there was no time now. He pushed John in ahead of him. As he climbed down after him, he asked the other two if they were coming too.

“I’ll just phase,” Kitty said, “I’ll be fine.”

“They be after John, anyway,” the Cajun said as he tried to fix his cufflinks. “You keep ‘im safe now, you hear me?”

Bobby nodded. “He’ll be safe with me.”

He climbed down the ladder. Had this ladder always been here? It was dark and cold at the bottom of the tunnel. He’d forgotten what cold really felt like. It seemed like so long since he’d felt cold. A small flickering light appeared besides him. John had a flame dancing on his palm. “Cold down here, huh?” the boy whispered, moving closer so Bobby could put an arm around his shoulders.

“We’ll be alright. I won’t let him get you.”

“I know.”

Bobby smiled at the trust in John’s eyes. He heard a sound from above. “We’d better keep moving.”

They walked down the corridors for what felt like forever. “Magneto made this tunnel, you know?” John piped up after a time. “It leads to our bedroom.”

“That’s where we’ll go then,” Bobby said. Him and John could hide safely there until everyone else had gone away. He took hold of John’s hand again as they walked. There was silence for a while. Then the sound of footsteps. It couldn’t be theirs, they weren’t making any noise…

“Who’s there?” Bobby called as bravely as he could, clutching John to him tightly.

“It’s me Bobby, your girlfriend.” Rogue stepped out of the shadows in her X-Men uniform, no gloves on. John pressed back into Bobby, unable to get further away without going through him.

Bobby rubbed the warm boy’s arms soothingly. “What’s the problem? It’s just Rogue. She’s our friend.”

John shook his head and before Bobby could stop him, a flame shot out from his palm and swallowed her. Bobby watched with horror. But Rogue just stepped out from the fire, her uniform in tatters and her skin red with severe burns. She walked towards them. Bobby couldn’t move, even as she reached for John. Even as her charred fingers gripped his lover’s jaw, Bobby couldn’t make a move to stop her.

“Don’t hurt him!”

“Why not?” She held on and Bobby could see John paling, could feel him starting to sag in Bobby’s arms. “He’s the enemy, Bobby.” John made a small helpless noise as consciousness fled from his grasp. Now that the boy was out cold, Rogue let go. She turned to the shadows. “You can take him back now.”

Magneto stepped out and walked towards them. Bobby started to back away but Rogue grabbed his arm and he couldn’t move. It didn’t drain him, but her grip was like a vice. He hugged John tighter to him, but Magneto simply pried his arms away from the unconscious teen. “Ah, my Pyro.”

“No, he’s my John! Give him back!”

The evil megalomaniac ignored him and leant down to press his lips to John’s. “Wake up, Pyro. I have a job for you.”

John stirred, then pulled Magneto down for a passionate kiss. Bobby watched with jealousy as his boyfriend was stolen from him. “What do you need me to do?” John asked, running a hand back through his now-blond hair. 

“We have an X-Man. Kill him.”

Not even looking Bobby’s way, John flicked open his lighter.

Then all Bobby saw was fire.

 

After he woke up in an icy sweat, he didn’t know how much later, Kitty sat down beside him on the roof. His and John’s bedroom window opened up onto the flat roof of the garage. It was an easily accessible thinking spot.

“Hey, you okay?” He didn’t have to look over at the petite brunette to know she would be wearing a concerned expression.

“No,” he said honestly, then felt guilty about it. Everyone had enough to worry about, what with the school closing and the injuries everyone sustained in the fight. Not to mention the loss of Kurt. The young man had made friends in his time here with his noble acceptance of difficult times and his brave optimism. Bobby hadn’t know him well, but he thought he could happily have gotten to know him better. In addition to the fresh grief was the re-opening of old wounds. It was like Jean had died all over again with the atmosphere the way it was in the Mansion at the moment. 

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Kids going home, the ones who stay are frightened out of their wits with all the stuff that’s going down. Kinda reminds me of last year, after Alkali Lake. I should have been relieved that I was rescued but all I could think was that if we’d been left there, maybe Miss Grey wouldn’t have died.”

“Kitty, everyone would have died. The Professor was going to explode our brains.” He couldn’t do that to him now, with the neural inhibitor Bobby wore.

“But you know what I’m saying. There was like, this major loss and nobody knew what to do or what to feel. It was frightening and so sad. And even then the school was open. Now it’s closing…”

“You staying?” Bobby asked her, out of interest. He knew that like him, Kitty had a well-off home that she could return to. Unlike him, her parents were more understanding of her mutant capabilities.

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving. Not after last night. You know Mr Summers and Mr Logan have gone to hand over Sabertooth and Toad to the authorities?” Bobby nodded. “Well I caught Sabertooth. Stuck his arms in a wall. He was gonna hit Remy,” she said when he stared at her with surprise. “I just… I can’t help but wonder who would have saved him if I hadn’t been there. Don’t get me wrong, I know most people here can look after themselves and Remy’s no exception, but it only takes one mistake to get you killed in a fight and I couldn’t bear not being there to make sure the people I care about don’t make that mistake.” She took a deep breath and Bobby wondered if that speech had been pre-planned. “You going home?”

“You kidding me? Last time I went home my brother called the cops. Apparently there’s still a patch of lawn that won’t grow grass after John…” he trailed off. Just thinking of John made him feel cold inside now. He didn’t even know what it was he was feeling.

“I heard you saw John and he attacked you.” News travelled quickly and inaccurately in the Xavier mansion, even when half the pupils were leaving.

“He was in my room. He said he missed me.” Kitty put a hand on his knee. “Then we made love. Then he sedated me.”

The supportive hand on his knee was no longer in synch with Kitty’s expression. Shocked couldn’t quite convey the sheer drop of the jaw or the bug-eyed stare. “You what?!?”

“I made love to him in our room. It was nice.”

“Nice?!?”

“Yeah, nice. Perfect, even. Except for the drugging thing at the end. I wasn’t exactly prepared for that. Still, I’m glad it happened, I think.”

“But, why would he…”

“I don’t know. And believe me, I’ve thought about it. I have no clue. He said Magneto would kill him if it was found out, but I don’t know whether that’s true or not.”

“Magneto seemed kinda possessive of John. I don’t think he’d send him to sleep with you. Are you sure it wasn’t Mystique?”

“I’m sure.”

“How can you know?”

“I just do, okay? Mystique’s good, but she’s not that good. I know John better than anyone. Besides, Rogue encountered John as he was leaving. He fried her.”

“I heard about that. She okay?” Kitty’s tone was anything but concerned now. It was kind of funny to see the girls having their little battles over men who really weren’t worth it. He’d like to see how Kitty would handle it if Magneto was after Gambit.

“She’ll be alright. Mr Logan lent her his healing powers, but she’ll have minor scarring down her left arm where her sleeves got stuck to the skin.” Kitty winced. Hopefully she wouldn’t be so squeamish once she’d been on a few more missions. X-Men really couldn’t afford to be grossed out so easily. “You heard anything about Storm? I was down in the medical ward with Rogue and I could hear utter mayhem from her room.”

“I was next door to her. She’s a mess. She got hit full-on from an accidental blast by Mr Summers, but she won’t let them get close enough to make sure she’s okay. Once she regained consciousness things started exploding with lightning and stuff. Eventually they locked her in there. They’ll check on her when she finally passes out, I guess.”

“How’s your head?” Bobby asked, noticing her stitches and feeling guilty again for not asking her earlier about her injury.

“I’ll be okay. It was just a minor wound. I was dizzy and sick for a while, but I feel fine now.”

“Good. You and Remy officially an item now?”

Kitty nodded with a smile, the first genuine one he’d seen all day. “Yep. You’re gonna have to deal with Rogue now. The Professor thinks it was Remy’s powers that let them touch, but she’s not getting touched by him anymore if I have anything to say about it. And I totally do.” Bobby chuckled.

They sat in silence for a while longer. When he heard Kitty sigh, he knew an important conversation was on its way.

“Bobby…”

“I don’t know. Whatever you’re going to ask me, I don’t know.”

“I just wanted to know how you felt about John now. Do you hate him for using you like this or allowing himself to be used?”

“No. It’s not his fault and…” he paused, wondering if he wanted to say this to Kitty.

“And?”

“And I know he meant it, what we did. It was John there with me. Not Pyro, not a pawn of Magneto, it was St John Allerdyce in my bed. He wanted to be there.”

Kitty sighed again and patted him on the shoulder. “I can’t stop you believing what you want to believe. Just… be careful, okay? I care about John too and I know he’d never intentionally harm us, but his intentions don’t count for much anymore.” She stood up slowly. “I promised I’d help Tabitha move her things. Didn’t think she’d be one to go home after what she told me, but she said at least the Brotherhood don’t barge into her living room in the middle of the night.”

“Do you think they - the people leaving, I mean - are doing the right thing? Even with the Brotherhood and the Government and everything, we’re safe here, aren’t we?”

“No to both questions,” Kitty said cryptically as she climbed back into the mansion through the window.

So she didn’t think they should leave, and she didn’t think it was safe. Brave girl.

Bobby sighed. John used to sit out here all the time, playing with fire and smoking things he shouldn’t. Now he was… where? In Magneto’s bed? The thought of it made Bobby feel sick with jealousy and the sense of wrongness.

It was the first real emotion he’d felt all day.


	20. Chapter 20

Flames dancing on pale skin.

Innocent desire meeting corrupting lust.

Gentle touches as a prelude to his firm grip.

Kisses that said ‘you are mine’.

Responsive tongue that thanked him for it.

The young, lithe body beneath him begged for his benevolence.

He bestowed kisses and teasing touches.

Then he kissed harder and touched more, wanting to glut his fiery avenging angel, wanting him addicted to this forever.

Hot hands ran down his back, leaving trails of fire in their wake.

Eyes scrunched shut and sweat slipping down his innocent face as his lips mouthed words that never existed.

He’d let him burn this time.

He neared his climax, the room was getting unbearably hot.

As Pyro arched deliciously beneath him, the name on his lips was ‘Iceman’.

 

He woke to see that Pyro was already awake beside him, playing with a small fiery whirlwind on his naked chest. It was a good job his mutation provided his skin with a certain amount of resilience to the flame, since the boy would probably play with the fire regardless and that would result in more scars on his pretty flesh.

Magneto - never Erik with Pyro - leaned over and brushed some stray hairs from Pyro’s face. “You need a haircut. Soon you won’t be able to style it the way you like.”

Pyro smiled weakly. “I’ll ask Mystique about a trip to the hairdresser’s.” 

Something was wrong. He wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Did you have a bad dream?”

Pyro shook his head. “Nah, a good one actually.” He waved a hand towards the wall by the bed, which Magneto now noticed was scorched again. That was odd. The sleep-burning had stopped for a while after Mesmero’s interference, but it had recently started again. Also, last night’s sexual activities had led to a phenomenal fire. Luckily, it had not been actual intercourse, else the burns could have been a tad more… severe. As it was, his palm was quite painful.

“Pyro, when you seduced Iceman…”

“Yeah?” His attention was on him fully now, with startling suddenness. 

“Did he reciprocate the favour?”

Pyro looked uneasy. “You mean, did he…”

“Did he pleasure you in any way?” He realised the reason for the unease and said, “it is not a problem if he did, I ask merely out of interest.”

Pyro started pulling at a loose thread on the bed sheet. “He… yeah, he touched me. Is that okay? I know I said I wouldn’t sleep with him and I didn’t but I thought he’d think it was weird if I didn’t let him…”

“Ssh, sssh. It’s fine. Did you orgasm?”

“Uh…” his discomfort was odd. They normally spoke easily about sexual acts. “Yeah, I came.”

“Did you set anything alight?”

“Not really, no. A little,” he said quickly. If Magneto hadn’t known of his control over Pyro’s mind, he would have thought the teen was lying to him.

“Odd.”

“He probably wasn’t any good. It wasn’t that good,” Pyro said, moving closer so that he was lying almost on top of Magneto. 

“Hmm. Maybe.” It was good to hear that his experience and skill was appreciated. “I wonder why your powers are becoming uncontrollable again. Maybe we should speak with Mesmero again.”

Pyro brought one of his legs up so it brushed across Magneto’s crotch under the sheet that covered them both from the waist down. “I’d rather not talk to him again.”

“Why not?” 

“He creeps me out,” Pyro said, while trailing a warm hand up to rub at Magneto’s left nipple softly. “I know you only want what’s best for me, but I don’t really like it when psychics play with my head.”

He was going to ask when Pyro had stopped trusting him, but a hand started coaxing his body’s attention. He groaned as Pyro smoothly moved down his body before taking his hardening cock into his gorgeous mouth. Those lips, god, those lips…

Magneto lay his head back on the comfortable pillow and rested a hand on Pyro’s head. This was bliss. It was amazing how much you could grow to need something you never considered before. Of course, the power was part of the rush, knowing that Pyro adored him more than anything in the world and would do anything for him. That knowledge was almost as much of a turn-on as Pyro’s tongue on the head of his dripping cock.

After a few more minutes of Pyro’s increasingly skilled mouth, Magneto came with a low groan. He pulled on Pyro’s hair, bringing the boy off of his cock and letting semen seep down the side. He pulled him up and kissed him hard.

“You are mine,” he whispered roughly.

Pyro nodded. But there was a distinct lack of joy and as the teen lay his head on Magneto’s chest, the man started to feel the icy tendrils of suspicion snake around his heart. But he tried to ignore his doubts. After all, didn’t Iago say in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ that ‘jealousy shapes faults that are not’? And look at what that poison did to foolish Othello and his innocent Desdemona. 

No, it would not be wise to pay any attention to these minor incidents, especially a jealousy arising from a ridiculous dream. Mystique was already trying to discredit his lover, probably due to jealousy. He’d indulged that woman for too long. And Pietro was acting strange, following Pyro around like a lost puppy that needed putting down. Luckily, Pyro could be trusted. Even without Mesmero’s control, Pyro could certainly be trusted.

Pyro murmured something incomprehensible in his slumber.

He had left once before though. That could not be ignored. And Magneto had never been able to bring himself to enquire about the reason for his departure. He didn’t know if his young lover had left on a quest for self-control or if he had gone to try his luck with Iceman.

Not that it mattered now. Pyro was here in his arms, nobody else’s. And he had successfully convinced Charles to stop taking mutants in at his school. That would benefit the Brotherhood hugely in the long run. Already mutants had approached him for sanctuary and he had provided for them. One of the X-Men was dead, which was a shame, but also beneficial. Not that he’d ever tell his son that. No sense in enlarging the boy’s ego even further.

There was a quiet but fast knock on the door. Speak of the devil, he thought. “Come in Quicksilver.”

His son peered round the door, his eyes on Pyro’s sleeping form longer than Magneto would like. “Uh, there’s a couple of mutants here to sign up.”

Magneto pulled the thin blanket higher up to cover more of Pyro’s body from his son’s gaze. “So? I have told Mystique she is to decide who we take in while I am not there.”

“It’s Iceman and Shadowcat, sir.”

“What?”

“They say that Xavier is sending everyone home but the adults and they’re unwelcome in their parents’ homes. They say that they know there have been incidents between the X-Men and the Brotherhood, but they hope it doesn’t stop you from considering them for Brotherhood recruits.”

“Is that so?” Magneto said with a smile. Well wasn’t this a turn up for the books. Charles’ good little students defecting to the terrorist side. It was bound to happen eventually. Still, better to be safe than sorry. “Is Mesmero still around?”

“Yes sir.”

“Take him to my office, would you? And tell Mystique to escort the two ex-X-Men there.” He wouldn’t put it past Charles to have used the two children to infiltrate his team. His team which seemed to rapidly be developing into a school itself. No more young recruits, he decided, except for ones with phenomenal power. 

After the door had clicked shut behind Pietro, Magneto gently moved Pyro over to the side of the bed. Perhaps Pyro’s seduction of Bobby Drake had more consequences than expected. If the Iceman was here because he thought he had a chance with Pyro though, there would be problems. 

He started to dress in his usual clothing and donned the helmet. An ice manipulator and someone capable of moving through solid objects. They would be useful if their stories were genuine and they weren’t pawns in a new game of Charles’.

As he reached the door, a sleepy voice stopped him in his tracks. “Where you going?”

He turned to see Pyro watching him suspiciously through tired eyes. He went back over to the bed. “We have some interesting new applicants for Brotherhood membership. I’ll return shortly, love. You need more sleep.” He pressed a kiss to Pyro’s lips and the boy lay back down and closed his eyes.

He left the room with the feeling of Pyro’s lips on his and made his way to his office downstairs. Mystique was waiting outside for him, but there was nothing they had to discuss in private so he just waved her into the room before making his entrance. 

Shadowcat and Iceman were seated in front of his desk and they looked up at him with fear. They were both in their normal clothes and each carried a backpack. Both were wearing one of the psychic inhibitors on the back of their necks.

“So you want to fight for mutants now, instead of against them?”

“We’ll fight for whoever you say, as long as we’re not forced to fight the X-Men or kill anyone in cold blood. We’ll take people down, but we won’t murder them,” Iceman spoke, looking serious.

“Are there even any X-Men left?” Magneto asked, ignoring the other stipulation for now.

“Mr Logan, Mr Summers, Miss Munroe…” Shadowcat started to list the staff.

“I heard that Miss Munroe is rather ill at the moment,” he said.

“She’s getting better,” Bobby replied. “Look, we’re just here because we need somewhere to go. We’re willing to help you get better rights for mutants.”

“I find it hard to believe Xavier would just throw you out,” Mystique said, eyeing the two critically. She had a point. Xavier was one of the most benevolent people he knew. It was one of his biggest faults.

“He said we could go home to our parents,” Shadowcat offered by way of explanation. “He thinks we’re exaggerating the danger and our parents’ reactions to our mutant nature. But we don’t think it’s safe in our old homes. After what happened with Bobby’s family. Mine aren’t much better. I’d be scared someone was going to set fire to my house in the middle of the night or something.” She was staring at her hands, not looking at them.

“Charles does like to view the world in a highly-edited fashion,” Magneto said with a nod. “He probably believes that parental love is unconditional. He’d be wrong, of course.” And with what he might call ironic timing, Pietro entered the room. 

“Mesmero’s here, sir.” The ugly man entered the room and Magneto could see Shadowcat and Iceman getting paranoid.

“Thank you Quicksilver. You may leave.”

The teen nodded and was gone within a second. “I would like to verify your stories, if that is okay. If you could switch your psychic defence mechanisms to the read-only function, Mesmero will scan your thoughts to see if you are telling the truth. You understand how it is.”

The two of them looked at each other. Shadowcat shrugged a little and Iceman nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

They reached round the back of each others’ necks to easily move the switches. Mesmero put his fingers to Shadowcat’s temples first. After a couple of minutes, he pulled back. “She tells the truth.” He moved over to Iceman and started to read him. A few minutes passed with Magneto drumming his fingers on the metal desk and Shadowcat sneaking glances at him and Mystique when she thought they weren’t looking. “His story is true. He also desires assurance on the subject of John’s safety.”

Magneto raised an eyebrow at the teen. Iceman looked at the desk between them. “I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

“Mystique, could you show Miss Pryde to a room?”

The brunette girl glanced anxiously at Bobby. She clearly didn’t want to leave him alone. But the Iceman smiled reassuringly at her. “I’ll be fine, Kitty.”

The girl nodded and departed with Mystique, although her nervousness was still clear on her face. “You can go too, Mesmero. Thank you for your assistance.”

The man bowed slightly and left the room. Now it was just him and Iceman. He tried to refrain from thinking of the boy as his rival. There really was need, since there was no competition. Pyro was in his bed. There was no John for this stupid boy to steal back.

“I know he’s yours, that doesn’t matter. I’m not here to cause problems. We needed somewhere to go and you guys have helped John. Yeah, it would have been nice if he’d come back with us, but this place is probably safer for him. We thought that if you were good enough to help us for no reason back then, then you might help me and Kitty.”

“Do you still believe that I have Mesmero controlling him? That is a misconception that I cannot allow if you are to work for me. Pyro’s choice to remain with me has been his own. Do you understand that?”

“Yeah, I do.” Obviously the boy believed that Pyro’s seduction of him had not been an instruction from Magneto. He was so willing to believe that his John had returned that he was able to convince himself that Pyro was not under Magneto’s control.

“Good.” Magneto stood from the table and held out his hand. Iceman had a firm handshake. “Welcome to the Brotherhood, Mr Drake.”

The door opened again, admitting Pyro into the room. He was only wearing a black pair of shorts and Magneto couldn’t miss the way Bobby’s eyes moved over the other teen’s body. Pyro seemed to be still half asleep, since he was pressed up against Magneto before fully seeing who was in the room with them.

“I was wondering if you could…” Then his brain pointed out the other person. “Bobby?!? What are you doing here?”

“Xavier kicked us out, so me and Kitty have signed up with the Brotherhood.”

Magneto put a finger under Pyro’s chin and closed the dropped jaw. “Is that alright, Pyro?”

“Yeah… yeah that’s…” the shock gave way to a smile. “That’s awesome. Frost your hand, Drake.”

Confused, Bobby did so, a layer of ice forming on his outstretched palm. Pyro made a small gesture with his hand, then placed a flower formed of fire into the boy’s hand. 

“Welcome to the Brotherhood.”


	21. Chapter 21

This was utter hell. How on Earth she had managed to convince herself this was a good idea, she didn’t know. But when there are no genuinely good plans to be had, the bad ones started to look appealing. Now she was in the Brotherhood with Bobby. She had spent the day infiltrating various institutions and obtaining sensitive information for Magneto. Xavier had asked her and Bobby to try not to take part in Brotherhood activities, but what else could they do? Did the Professor honestly expect them to get away with not doing anything to earn their keep here, like Magneto wouldn’t notice?

Her and Bobby had decided, just between themselves, that they would do anything short of murder in order to get John back. It was just a case of holding up until Bobby could talk some sense into John. Unfortunately, Magneto had been careful to keep the pair of them apart. The megalomaniac claimed it was because their powers cancelled each other out and they were both too useful to focus their resources into one area, but Kitty knew better. She’d seen the way he watched them interact and the way he did anything in his power to cut their time together short. He was way too suspicious, making this whole operation more complicated.

There was also the slight problem of time. Xavier had implored them to let him put mental blocks in their minds to protect their plans. It had taken a lot of discussion before Bobby had felt sure enough to do it, but Xavier seemed keen to regain their trust. They didn’t actually know how long Xavier’s mental blocks would keep Mesmero at bay. The second they disintegrated, Mesmero would pick up on their true intentions and he’d tell Magneto. Problem was, they’d likely have no indication of his knowledge until Magneto had her and Bobby killed. 

And then there was Remy. Poor Remy who couldn’t be told about the plan because she knew he wouldn’t let her do it. He’d end up following them and then everything would end up ruined. He couldn’t have joined in, he was too old to be kicked out by Xavier. He could have claimed to be looking out for them, but that might have made Magneto more reluctant to recruit them. He preferred more impressionable members. So she’d had to leave him behind, thinking that she had left him. Thinking… oh god… that she’d run away with Bobby to the Brotherhood. But, he knew Bobby liked John, so maybe he’d put two and two together.

Or maybe Rogue was comforting him right now.

Kitty walked into the recreational room. A sofa, a television, a few computers with internet access. It was sort of like the X-Men house, but the vending machine in the corner somehow made it clear that this was a workplace, not a home. Bobby was sitting flicking idly through the news channels. For once, nothing seemed to be happening. Nothing that would be shown on public news, anyway.

“Hey,” she greeted him, sitting herself down at one of the computers and switching it on.

“Hey. You look tired. Rough day?”

“If I spend anymore time non-corporeal, I’m going to end up stuck that way. And I swear that if I’m asked to infiltrate another high security compound before I get a decent meal and a nap, I’m going to scream.”

Bobby smiled at her sympathetically. “Magneto’s got me working on a pure water supply, in case we get cut off. That probably won’t happen for a while, but…”

“Then it’s not our problem,” Kitty said with a shrug. Bobby seemed to be settling in a little too easily. Then again, he could probably settle in a roach-infested motel in the Arctic as long as John was there.

“I know that,” he replied in a whisper, “but they don’t. Talking like that will get us in serious trouble Kitty. The walls have ears.” He glanced up at a security camera in the corner. “And eyes.”

“How are you doing on your mission, anyway?” She meant getting John, but of course the walls wouldn’t understand that.

“I was talking to him before, we were watching tv. Then Magneto came in and was all ‘Pyro, I must speak with you’ and now they’ve gone off somewhere.” The scowl looked out of place on Bobby’s handsome face. “You’ll scream if you get another mission, I’ll break something if I see them all over each other again. I…” He shuddered. “…I can’t stand it, Kitty! I thought I could put up with it knowing that the end is in sight, but I can’t watch them together. I’m going to do something stupid and ruin everything, I know I am.”

Kitty paused in the typing of her e-mail to Remy. “No Bobby, you’re stronger than that. You just have to remember that if you don’t control yourself, you might never get him back. Magneto will kick you out, or worse, and John will be stuck here with him, under his control and…”

Bobby interrupted. “You know, I still don’t know if he’s fully under Mesmero’s power. I mean, he… you know, we…”

“Yeah. I know what you’re talking about,” Kitty said, stopping Bobby’s adorable embarrassment over the fact that he and John had made love. “But have you considered that Magneto might have ordered…”

“No!” Bobby cleared his throat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to shout, it’s just, we’ve had this conversation before. Magneto’s too possessive and John wanted to do it, I know he did. Clearly he’s trying to break out of Mesmero’s hold, or he’s already done it and he’s trying to work a way out of this.”

“Or he’s not under anyone’s control but he’s made a decision.” It was worth suggesting.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bobby asked, looking a little annoyed. 

“Magneto does take care of him. He buys him things and he offers him the opportunity to wield his powers as much as he likes, and John said himself that he enjoyed the bedroom activities.”

Bobby was silent for a long time, and Kitty wondered if she shouldn’t have said anything. But it was possible and they had to prepare themselves in case John really didn’t want to come home. If he was happier here, they might have to let him go. But then what would happen to Bobby? He wouldn’t get over this for a long time. He might never get over it. He was clearly in love with John. Then again, a month ago she might have said Bobby was clearly in love with Rogue, so maybe he’d get over it easily. She returned to her e-mail, trying to put the bleak thoughts out of her mind.

“I’ll take better care of him.”

She glanced over at Bobby, determination engraved on his face. She continued to type her message of reassurance to Remy.

“I will, you know. Magneto’s nothing but a dirty, evil old psychopath and I won’t let him mess with John like this. A couple of years down the line, we won’t even recognise our friend anymore. He’ll be one of them, empty of any emotion except hate and I can’t stand back and think that might be better for him.” He started flicking through the channels again.

He was right of course, and it made Kitty feel ashamed for even thinking of leaving John here. It was just… it was easy to say ‘we must rescue him’ when you’re in the comfort and security of the Xavier Institute, but when you came here and you saw how happy he was with these people, it seemed like a less obvious course of action.

She looked over her message to Remy: ‘Remy, it’s me Kitty. I just wanted to apologise for not telling you earlier that I was going to do this. I didn’t want to worry you, but it seemed like the only way we could get John back. I know you’ll understand I had to do this. I couldn’t let Bobby run in alone. He’s so blind when it comes to John, he’d end up doing something stupid. We’re being careful, Xavier’s shielding our thoughts from them so we won’t be found out. I just wanted to remind you that I love you. I’ll be back soon, safe and sound and hopefully with John and Bobby. Don’t worry about me and don’t touch Rogue or I’ll set my new team-mates on you.  
Lots of love, Kitty.’

She smiled. That seemed to be everything. She clicked ‘send’. As she started to delete some of her old messages, the door opened and a breeze blew her hair aside. She tried to style it back as Quicksilver stopped in front of her. 

“Mystique requires your abilities, Shadowcat.”

She didn’t scream, just grit her teeth and nodded. “I’ll be there shortly, Quicksilver.”

“You’ll be there in the next minute if you know what’s good for you,” the slender young man said in a deceptively cheery tone. Quicksilver frightened Kitty. Unlike the rest of the Brotherhood, he didn’t even pretend to have a reason for his crimes. He just did whatever atrocities came to mind out of the need for something to do. When you live as fast as he did, you quickly ran out of legal ways of enjoying yourself. And she was pretty sure he was mad. 

“She’ll head along in a moment Quicksilver,” Bobby said from across the room. “Let her switch off the computer, then she’ll walk straight there.”

“Switch off the computer?” The pale terrorist sighed. “That takes forever.”

“You don’t have to wait for me,” Kitty said, hopeful that he would leave.

“Actually, I do,” he said with a grin, putting a firm hand on her shoulder. “Mystique’s orders.”

“Why is it,” Bobby asked, “that you’re Magneto’s son, yet you take orders from Mystique? How come she doesn’t take orders from you?”

Quicksilver’s blue eyes narrowed at Bobby. “Shut up, Iceboy. You two take orders from me and that’s enough.”

“They aren’t really your orders though, are they?” Kitty couldn’t help herself. “They’re hers. You’re just the messenger boy round here.”

Quicksilver’s hand blurred slightly, then she felt a burning, stinging sensation on her cheek. It brought tears to her eyes. He’d slapped her! She raised her hand defensively to stop Bobby, who was standing from the sofa. She’d seen what this maniac had done to Kurt and all their hopes would end here if they got into a fight with Quicksilver, even though between them they might be able to take him. Magneto would not be impressed. “Leave it Bobby. We started the argument after all.”

“Very noble,” Quicksilver sneered at her. What a horrible person.

“Computer’s off, I’m moving. Okay?”

He crossed his arms and leant right into her face. “Move faster.”

She pushed him back gently, knowing a hard shove would just start problems, and walked out of the room. She could feel him standing behind her, then on her right, then on her left, then he was walking ahead of her, backwards so he could watch her with mean eyes.

Eventually, they reached Mystique’s office. Quicksilver knocked four times in quick succession, then stepped back. When Mystique called for them to enter, he pushed the door open and shoved Kitty in ahead of him. She pushed him back, then went and sat before Mystique at her desk. Quicksilver went and stood behind Mystique and they both watched her silently. It was more than a little intimidating.

“Um, am I in trouble?”

“Perhaps. But not with us. We’re actually rather pleased with you and the work you’ve been doing,” the blue woman said calmly.

“Thank you,” Kitty said politely.

“You’re welcome,” Mystique said. “However there is a slight issue I’ve been asked to discuss with you.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. The abuse of e-mail facilities.”

Kitty knew there was no point in denying anything. She was so stupid to think they wouldn’t monitor the e-mail service! Now they knew of the plan and…

“I think she’s going to have a heart attack,” Quicksilver drawled with amusement.

“We already told you that you aren’t in trouble,” Mystique said, clearly trying to calm her down. But how could this be?

“How can I not be in trouble? Did you read the e-mail?” Then Kitty realised she might be better off not talking.

“We did. You’re here to fetch Pyro. That’s fine by me.”

“And me,” Quicksilver piped up.

“It is? But I thought…”

“Erik is decidedly distracted with Pyro around. I would like to restore his focus on our goal,” Mystique said, watching Kitty’s reaction.

“Okay.” This was unexpected, but it made a strange sense. “So you two will help us?”

“Quicksilver made some useful observations on the nature of Mesmero’s control.”

Kitty looked up at the teen, who leaned back against the wall and shrugged as if to say ‘what the hell’. He was probably as confused at siding with her as she was at siding with them. “After Pyro and Iceman had sex…”

“Was that on Magneto’s orders?” If anyone knew the answer, it would be them.

“Yes. But that doesn’t matter.”

“How can it not matter? Bobby’s here for someone who has no interest in him and…”

“Shut up, you stupid girl,” Quicksilver hissed in her face. “My father’s office is just down the hall and he‘ll hear you. Now listen. Pyro cares about Iceman and he always has done. My father used Mesmero to suppress that, but then when he forced Pyro to be with Iceman, it awakened those feelings again. Not quite strong enough to make Pyro leave my father, but enough to make him doubt his place here. And strong enough to make him want Iceman again.”

“So you think he’ll leave if we ask him?”

“No,” Mystique said with a shake of her head. “I think he needs a little more coaxing to your way of thinking.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, you have to tell Bobby to seduce Pyro. Pyro will be willing and once they have been together again, enough suppressed emotions will be brought out for Pyro to see his true feelings and loyalties. Then we’ll help you get him out of here and out of our way.”

Kitty nodded, eager to tell Bobby this news. Although she might have to be careful about the part where Magneto ordered John’s seduction of him. That could be a bit of a blow. “What about Magneto? He’ll find out.”

“In an hour he’ll be setting off for Europe. He won’t be back until tomorrow evening. He’s got some business to take care of. So you have to make this happen soon, or we won’t get another opportunity. It was only at my insistence that Erik let Pyro be sent on a separate mission from him. I don’t think it will happen again. You have to act fast.”

Kitty nodded and jumped up from her chair. “You can count on us.”

Mystique smiled. “Oh, I know.”

Letting herself out of the office, Kitty walked down the hall as quickly as she dared. Epiphany through sex seemed a little risqué, but Bobby had happily bedded John already, he’d probably be happy to try it again for a good cause. They were going to do it, they were going to get John back. And who’d have thought that Mystique and Quicksilver would be so helpful?

Maybe the Brotherhood weren’t so bad after all.


	22. Chapter 22

“Please Bobby, I can’t take it anymore. I need you. I need you so badly. Please, take me away from him.” John’s eyes were pleading.

Bobby ran his hand over John’s cheek. “Of course. I knew you needed me to save you.”

John stepped closer to him. “I don’t know how I can repay you for what you’ve done.”

Bobby tugged him even closer, feeling John’s warmth against his own cold body. “We’ll think of something.”

They leaned in to kiss.

 

“Earth to Bobby, come in Bobby!”

He snapped his attention back to Kitty, who was grinning at him. “Sorry, I was miles away.”

“I doubt that, John’s only a couple of rooms along.”

He narrowed his eyes at her in a mock-glare, but his heart wasn’t in it. There were more important things on his mind. “So what you’re saying, is if I get in John’s pants again, he’ll love me? I don’t know, Kitty, this sounds a lot like a teenage girl’s love-life.”

She thwapped him round the back of the head. It hurt. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just like the Professor said, an inner epiphany. John has wanted you for a long time.”

“Even though Magneto forced him to sleep with me?” And that knowledge hurt like hell.

“Yes. And that’s why doing it brought a part of him back. That’s why it felt like he wanted to be with you. Because he loves you and he’s starting to realise that.”

“Did they say love? Are you sure about the love?” He embarrassed himself with how desperate he sounded.

Kitty looked uneasy. “Not in so many words.” But hurried to reassure him. “But I’m sure he must, otherwise he wouldn’t have connected you so deeply to his previous identity, right?”

He hadn’t thought about it like that. That was pretty neat. “Yeah, I guess. How long do we have?”

Kitty checked her watch. “Magneto should have left by now. He won’t be back until tomorrow evening, Mystique said.”

“Right.” Bobby stood up and brushed his clothes down. Black jeans, blue shirt. Wasn’t exactly ‘come get me’ clothing, but it was passable. “Do I look okay?”

“Aside from the fact you look as though you’re approaching your doom? Yeah, fine.”

“Well I’m sorry, I’m a bit nervous!” Kitty flinched when he shouted. “Sorry.”

“That’s okay. Just stop thinking of it as some kind of task.” She stood up close to him and gripped his shoulders to make sure he was paying attention. “Bobby, you are going to have sex with John and bring him home. What are you waiting for?”

Bobby tripped over a chair leg in his haste to get out of the room. He stood up and brushed himself off again. Kitty was trying to hide her laughter behind her hand. “Quit laughing at me, would you? I’m nervous enough as it is.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kitty said, regaining her composure. “Nervous becomes cute on you.”

“I’m not going for cute,” Bobby said before realising he was whining. He cleared his throat. “I’m going for dashing and debonair. Possibly suave.”

When Kitty just broke down into giggles, he sighed and left the room, closing the door gently behind him. He started the walk down the hall, his chest tight and his heart pounding. What if John said no? Hang on, he couldn’t just go and ask, he had to have some kind of seduction plan!

Bobby ran back and threw open the door, scaring the crap out of Kitty, who shrieked. “Kitty, what am I going to say to him?”

“I don’t know. Think of something.”

“But what?”

“I don’t know,” Kitty said slowly for emphasis. “But if you don’t think of something in the time it takes you to walk down there, I’m going to phase you into his room, say ‘Bobby wants to have sex with you’, then leave nature to take its course.”

Bobby stared at her, eyes wide. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would if it got results,” Kitty said with a smile.

Bobby backed out of the door and pulled it shut again. He resumed his journey. The whole epic four metres of it. By the time he reached John’s room he was panicking. He still didn’t know what to say, but his hand was knocking on the door. Nothing inspired him in the seconds it took for the door to open, but when John smiled at him, his brain suddenly found the file of everything he’d wanted to say to him.

“Hey, can I talk to you?”

John nodded and opened the door wider, allowing Bobby into his messy room. He closed the door afterwards to give them some privacy. While Bobby stood awkwardly in the middle of dirty clothes and crumpled mission briefings, John threw himself back onto the unmade bed. “What’s on your mind, Bobby?”

“You.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t stop thinking about you John. I know I’m not supposed to do this on pain of death, but I have to tell you. I love you John. I love you so much that it’s killing me to see Magneto playing with you like this.”

John sighed. “He loves me too, you know.”

“It doesn’t matter whether he does or not. He’s had Mesmero mess with your head. You’re getting better now, but that doesn’t mean it never happened and it doesn’t mean it won’t happen again. I joined the Brotherhood to save you. I’m not leaving alive without you. Not when I know that in a few months time I’ll be asked to stop you. I couldn’t do it, Johnny.”

John looked away from him. “Bobby, we’ll never get out of here together.”

“Mystique and Quicksilver are helping.”

John looked surprised. “Really? Well, I figured that Mystique wants me out of the way and who knows what goes on in Pietro’s head? How are they helping?”

“Well, with information.”

“What kind of information?” John narrowed his eyes.

“They said that Magneto was away on business until tomorrow evening.”

“He didn’t tell me he would be gone that long. Nice of him,” John muttered sarcastically. “So now you run in here, talk me to my senses and I drop everything to go back to Xavier with you and the Kitty Kat?” John sneered. “Forget it. It’s a nice idea but you know what? I like this place. I like Magneto. And yeah, I like having you around but not enough to give it all up. You’ll have to leave without me.”

Bobby went and sat down besides John’s horizontal form on the bed. He smiled softly down at John, whose arms were folded in stubbornness. “What?”

“They didn’t tell me so I could kidnap you.”

“Then why…?”

“They did it so we could have some alone time.” Bobby ran a hand up John’s arm. “Talk some things out. We haven’t had an opportunity yet to talk about what happened that night you came home.”

“That place isn’t home,” John said petulantly.

“You’re avoiding the subject,” Bobby said. “Why did you do it, John?”

John looked up at him. “I guess I wanted to.”

“I heard that Magneto ordered you to do it,” Bobby said challengingly. Go on, he thought, tell me you’d do anything for that man and nothing for me.

“He ordered me to seduce you, but under no circumstances was I to have full-on sex with you. That was out of bounds. He’s a bit possessive like that.”

“How were you supposed to seduce me without sex?” Bobby asked confused. “You mean, just lead me up to it then drug me before…” He was cut off by John jumping up and pushing him onto his back on the bed.

“There‘s more to seduction than sex,” John said, leaning down and kissing him. His body was pressed against Bobby’s and even through their clothes, Bobby could feel the unparalleled heat of the other boy’s skin. The kiss was passionate and to throw in a cliché, hot. But it didn’t feel clichéd and that was the important thing. He felt John’s hands sneak down to his jeans and start on the button. This wasn’t fair, Bobby was supposed to be seducing him! John had seduced Bobby once already, this was so unfair. 

With that in mind Bobby grabbed the busy arms and turned over so that John was on his back beneath him. Just having John like this helped him harden in his jeans. Bobby started to pull John’s red t-shirt over the teen’s head, John lifting up to allow him room and pressing them closer together instead. Bobby threw the t-shirt to the large pile of clothes on the floor and started working on John’s black trousers, accidentally icing one of the buttons on the fly as he dragged them off. “No underwear?”

“No reason,” John said with a cheeky grin.

Bobby leant in and kissed him deeply. His John. While they kissed, John somehow managed to pull Bobby’s pants down, leaving Bobby to kick them to the floor. “I want you.”

John’s breathing was quicker now. “Then have me.”

This time was different from their first. Not less or more passionate, or even less gentle, it was just less awkward. Bobby knew what to do now. He knew how to coax those moans from John’s throat. He knew how to make him come and even better, how to not quite make him come. 

John had his arms wrapped around him, hanging on like a drowning man as he arched his hips and pushed back. “Bobby, Bobby, please…”

“Tell me you love me,” Bobby whispered, desperate to hear it.

John bit his lip and scrunched his eyes shut. “Bobby…”

“Please, just tell me…”

“I love you, Bobby, oh god I love you.” And they came together, both gasping for breath as their climaxes overwhelmed them. Bobby looked into John’s eyes, but John wasn’t looking at him anymore. He was looking over Bobby’s shoulder, towards the door. Bobby pulled out and turned to look at what was so riveting. 

“I just wish I could say I was surprised,” Magneto said calmly from his vantage point in the doorway.

Before Bobby could ice him, a metal pole was flying towards his face. It caught him in the centre of his forehead, the force of it knocking him off of the bed and onto the floor. He heard John cry out his name and looked up to see the other boy leaning over and staring with concern. His vision was blurry and spinning a bit and he couldn’t make his words come out. Which is why his only response to Magneto backhanding John roughly was to black out.


	23. Chapter 23

Hot-Blooded

What was going on?

John blinked slowly at the metallic ceiling. Everything round here was bloody metallic. It felt like his wrists were chained above his head. More metal. Typical. 

He tried to pull at the chains to see how much he could manage, but his arms didn’t want to obey. He rolled his head back against the bed so he could see his hands. Yep, chained. He tried to move them again. They wobbled slightly within the confines of his binds. Although he’d never had Piotr’s upper arm strength, this was really a new level of pathetic.

He tried to wiggle his toes. Nope. Oh god, was he paralysed?

“Oh look, he’s waking up.” He looked in the direction of the voice, his head moving slower than he’d wanted. Magneto walked over to him and ran his aged hand over John’s cheek. “If you’re wondering, you’re drugged.”

“Why…”

“Psychics have failed me for the last time. I will rely on something I can properly measure and control.” His hand slid down John’s chest and pinched a nipple. John made a pleased noise, much to his own horror. It was bad enough that he’d been stripped naked while he was unconscious, but now he was getting off on it? No way. Not gonna happen. “I must say, I rather like the effects this particular mix has on you.”

“Leave him alone!”

Bobby? John turned his head down to look by Magneto’s feet. There was Bobby, tied and gagged, although the gag had been gnawed at and pushed away from his mouth. Now John remembered what had happened, and he wished he didn’t as it shot his hopes of mercy to hell. Magneto did not like to be disobeyed, or tricked, or betrayed. John had done all three with Bobby. Now they were going to pay the price.

Mystique’s foot came from nowhere, smashing into the side of Bobby’s head and sending him sprawling to the floor beside the bed. “You will not speak.”

“Pick him up, dear. I want him to witness this before he dies.”

“Don’t…” John managed to force out, feeling tears start to prick at his eyes. He’d offer anything to stop Magneto from hurting Bobby, but the drugs had made his words slurred and intangible. 

“Don’t?” Magneto repeated with a raised eyebrow. “Darling boy, I’m not going to do anything. You are going to have the honours.” John shook his head and relaxed back into the pillow. Without some serious mind control, there was no way he could be forced to hurt Bobby. In fact, in his current state it was probably even more impossible, since he wouldn’t bet on his ability to stand up at the moment. “Quicksilver, fetch Miss Pryde.” John’s eyes found the apologetic stare of the pale boy by the door. “Now, Pietro!”

Pietro nodded and was gone, returning a moment later with Kitty bound in the same way as Bobby. Her eyes were wide with fright, then shock at seeing John’s naked form, then she scrunched her eyes closed to prevent any further indecency getting in. She was thrown roughly down beside Bobby, who winced as her head struck the cabinet. She was gonna end up with another concussion at this rate.

Magneto’s fingers began tracing patterns over John’s flesh again. “Such beauty. Such a shame that you cannot be controlled. But of course, even uncontrollable fire is useful. I am a big fan of scorched earth policies.” His fingers went back to the nipples. Shit, he knew John was sensitive there. The fact that Bobby and Kitty were right beside him didn’t seem to faze his body one bit and he started to become aroused. This was so embar… god, that felt good. John’s breaths became quiet moans. Magneto leant down to kiss his cheek, then he whispered in his ear. “You don’t even realise what you’ve done, do you foolish boy?”

John wondered how desperate and helpless he must look to Bobby and Kitty, but he couldn’t look at them to find out. He didn’t want to know. Hopefully Kitty would have her eyes closed at least, so she wouldn’t see him trying to get some energy back into his hips so he could move and get some damn friction on his cock. But Magneto’s body was too far and his own was too weak. The older man chuckled darkly and ran his spare hand up John’s thigh. “My control was a substitute for yours. Now you have none.”

John tuned out the psycho-babble and tried to move downwards to the hand trailing up to his crotch. His sedative-saturated body still refused to respond except for marked increase in hardness. There must have been something else in the drug, some kind of aphrodisiac. He’d never felt so needy. “Please…” The word was worth the effort, he had to show he needed it. Maybe Magneto would take pity on him.

“You’re begging for the deaths of your friends without even realising it.”

John frowned, trying to wrap his foggy mind round that one. No, it didn’t make sense. But the reminder of his friends was valuable. He couldn’t believe he’d been forgetting them. They were right there and although he couldn’t look at them, he could hear Bobby’s quick breathing by his ear. If he could reach out, he could touch him. He risked a glance. Bobby was staring at him, clearly turned on but reluctantly so. Him and John both. 

“They can’t help you, those binds are negating their powers. It can be damaging in the long-term, that’s why I never used them on you.” Magneto’s hands were everywhere but the one place he wanted them to be. “No matter how dangerous you were at orgasm, I could never risk using them.”

Bobby gasped and John realised there must have been a message in those words. But he couldn’t focus and he couldn’t think so he couldn’t understand. “Am I not getting my point through, Pyro?” The use of his other name sent a bonus thrill through his veins. He’d thought he was over that fetish. “Let me explain clearer.”

A thumb slid down to massage his hole, the pressure of it turning John’s next outward breath into a low groan. Magneto’s lips caressed his ear. “You are going to come. And when you do, everyone not shielded by an electromagnetic field will be burned to a crisp.”

John gained a shocking full awareness, briefly. If he climaxed from this treatment, he would kill Bobby and Kitty. His weakness would murder them both.

That was when Magneto finally gripped John’s erect cock, stroking slowly and firmly, building up the tension to unbearable heights. John’s head fell back against the pillow and he screamed through his teeth with frustration. The pleasure was growing inside and it was only a matter of time. Magneto was a skilled lover.

“John…”

He looked over at Bobby, who seemed scared and with good reason. John felt a warm tear slide down his cheek. He’d never felt so horribly helpless in his entire life and with the way his life had been lately, that was really saying something. “Bobby, I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry…”

He clenched his teeth and turned from the boy’s sad and understanding expression. He tried to move away from Magneto’s deft hand, but his body was still not responding to internal commands. The worst thing was the way that with everything that was happening, John still felt physically fantastic. This was the most sensual sexual session he’d ever had with Magneto. He knew it served the man’s purpose, the better it felt, the bigger the fire, but still…

Orgasm was close now. His body was tensing as best it could with the drugs in his system, and John realised that in this relaxed state the fire would be even more uncontrollable than usual. Magneto had thought of everything. Small fires were starting in the corners of the room as John tried to hold on just a little longer and he could cry as he felt himself getting closer and closer…

Fingers grasped his chained hands. Cold fingers. John stared into Bobby’s blue eyes. The powers weren’t gone, but suppressed, John could feel the coolness deep under the lukewarm skin. It seemed to absorb the heat straight from his hands. “Bobby…”

He came silently, trying to keep his eyes on Bobby’s, trying to make this their moment, stealing it from Magneto’s cruel hands and making it their own little epiphany.

It was only as his weak shudders were dying away that he realised nobody had died. There was no fire. In fact, his hands were icy cold. Magneto’s eyes were boring into him, then the old mutant’s gaze fixed on their hands. “Interesting… I suppose I will have to bring the fire out through another emotion. Perhaps grief and rage?” 

He nodded to Mystique, who pulled out a knife and knelt besides Kitty, who opened her eyes for the first time since she’d closed them when entering the room. Her scream was muffled by the gag, but her terror was clear in her eyes. The knife was pressed against her neck….

Then Mystique slumped to the side, a metal chair having struck her head. Quicksilver stared at his own hands holding the chair with utter astonishment.

“Have you gone mad?” Magneto asked with surprise. It wasn’t like his son to disobey him, or bludgeon Mystique with a household object.

His reply was received in the form of a blur, which cleared to reveal a band on Magneto’s wrist. The power inhibitor from Kitty. Magneto’s steely grey eyes widened with fury and he lashed out with a fist. Luckily, Kitty phased Quicksilver through it, and the pale-haired speedster charged into his father and knocked him roughly into the wall. As the man cursed and tried to remove the band on his wrist, Kitty phased Bobby and John through their restraints.

“You stupid children. Do you honestly think you’ve stopped me, even momentarily?” Magneto stood, having deactivated his own inhibitor. As he raised his hand, all the metal objects in the room raising with him, Bobby fired a beam of ice directly at Magneto. And he kept the ice-beam going for at least two minutes.

When the frozen mist had cleared, Magneto was within a solid block of ice, the expression of rage still on his regal features. There was a momentary silence as everyone tried to decide what to say.

“Thanks.” John felt the other teen deserved that much. Up until now, even arguing with his father had been a no-no. 

Quicksilver shrugged. “I felt bad. I didn’t know that was going to happen.”

“What did you think would happen?” Kitty said with her hands on her hips. 

“I just figured he’d kick you guys out and then… never mind. It’s not important now. You need to get out of here before Mystique wakes up and defrosts my father.”

“You’re…” John tried to shake some coherence into his head. His words still felt awkward on his tongue. “You’re comin’ with us.”

Pietro arched a neat eyebrow. “What? Be an X-Man?” He sniggered. “Well I guess I can ask.”

“Well let’s go then,” Kitty said. “Can you walk, John? You look a little spaced. And…um… naked.”

“His clothes are down here,” Pietro said, handing them over to John, who sat staring at them for a minute or so before Bobby took the shirt and manhandled him into it.

“You need help with the pants?” Bobby asked once his last button was buttoned.

“Um…” This was weird. Bobby was dressing him. Kitty was looking away, but she was still there. Pietro was watching.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Bobby said and lifted his legs, pulling the trousers up over him. “Do you know what Magneto gave him?” 

Bobby and Pietro’s conversation sounded very far away. 

“Hey guys, I think you’re gonna have to carry him. He’s totally not with it.”

“ ‘M fine, Kit…” he mumbled.

The next thing he knew, he was in somebody’s arms. Cold arms, so must be Bobby.

“You sure you’ve got him? I could carry him if you want. You must be tired after the ordeal.” Pietro’s voice was an annoying buzz by his ear and John nuzzled closer into Bobby’s cool neck. The world went dark and silent again.

The next time he woke, there were car noises. And Kitty was shrieking about something. “But he can’t drive for pooh, Bobby! Why can’t you do it?”

“I’m looking after John,” Bobby’s voice said from somewhere nearby. He was sitting on his lap, maybe. A hand was rubbing his back in gentle circles.

“You sure? Because I can look after John while you drive if you would prefer.”

“That’s alright.”

More silence with the occasional ‘slow down’, ‘watch that kid’ and ‘oh my god, are you trying to kill us’ from Kitty. 

“Hey, you awake?”

“Maybe.”

Bobby smiled down at him softly, and it was beautiful enough for John to forget everything Magneto had told him about angels being vengeful creatures of fire. “I’m taking you home.”

“ ‘Bout time,” John muttered, falling asleep to the sound of Bobby’s quiet laughter.


	24. Chapter 24

Sometimes Marie wondered if she’d developed invisibility as well as deadly skin. People pouring back into the School and she was still deprived of company. Her little stunt with Remy had effectively destroyed her friendship with Kitty, though the girl was still polite to her and they remained close to amicable. Of course the younger girl would be relatively forgiving, after all she was the one who had won their little war over Gambit. She had the man she wanted and judging from the way she interacted with Bobby and John, she had the friends she wanted too.

Things with Bobby weren’t working out either. He hadn’t come back to check on her healing progress once while she was in the medical room and although she had healed fully with barely any scarring, it wasn’t the point. He was supposed to worry about her, not pal up with her attacker as though the incident had never happened.

But nothing was going as she had anticipated. She was sitting in a corner tapping a pencil on her math homework while Bobby and John laughed at some stand-up comedian on the television. She was getting close to breaking point here. It didn’t help that she was stuck on math problem seven and she’d had another one of John’s sick flashbacks as her dream last night. Sex with Magneto. Who the hell would want that? She’d been sick in the bathroom when she woke up, remembering the desire that she had felt from John’s body. It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair that she had to have the memories of his disgusting sexual exploration when she couldn’t even shake hands with people.

Not that she hadn’t wanted John to come home. It seemed like the only way to stop Bobby moping around like he’d lost his dog. But the idea had been that when John came back, Bobby would perk up and start paying attention to her again. He hadn’t even tried to get her back when she’d left him for Remy. It was like he didn’t care.

Oh well, there were other people in the school. She frowned. Not many of them would appreciate an untouchable girl. 

Bobby flicked the television off and stretched as he stood. He reached out a hand and pulled John to his feet. They had to walk past Rogue to leave the room, and while John walked out without a word, Bobby stopped and put a hand on her clothed shoulder. “Hey, it’s nearly one am. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Marie smiled up at him. “Just stumped on this sum.”

She could see Bobby debating it in his head as he glanced down the corridor after John. He could stay and help her, he was good at math and it was the friendly thing to do. Or he could chase after John. “If you like, I could help you with that after second class tomorrow.”

Her heart sunk. “Bobby, it’s due first.”

“Oh.” Bobby shrugged and smiled apologetically. “Sorry then, can’t help. Hey Quicksilver,” he said to the new arrival, who literally breezed into the room. “You any good at math?” Then he left without waiting for an answer.

She stared at Quicksilver, who stared back. She didn’t even want to know what possessed the Professor to let this maniac into the School. Just because he was clever with his powers, that didn’t make him X-Man material. Admittedly, it had been his knowledge of Magneto’s plan to get more mutants into the Brotherhood that had motivated the Professor into readmitting students, but still. That and apparently saving Bobby from Magneto was not enough to redeem him. He’d hurt Kitty, Scott, Ororo and there was the slightly larger issue that he’d killed Kurt! Sometimes the Professor was too forgiving.

“Will you stop staring at me like that?”

She sighed and looked back at her work. Quicksilver’s voice next to her ear was the first she knew of his movement. “How can you not get Pythagoras’ Theorem? Everyone gets that.”

She grit her teeth. “Well I don’t, okay? If you’re not gonna help…”

Her paper disappeared momentarily, then a few seconds later was placed back in front of her. Complete with answers through to question twenty. “I can’t stand having to explain things to you slowpokes, so I just did it for you and you can read it and work it out on your own.”

Then the television was switched back on and he was sitting on the sofa. Marie was a little stunned. She looked over the answers. “Are these right?”

“Of course they’re right,” Quicksilver snapped at her, as he channel surfed. Eventually he stopped at the news. They were saying something about Worthington Industries.

“It’s just, I wouldn’t put it past you to make them all wrong just so’s you could laugh at me.” She didn’t know him very well, but she knew he was cruel like that.

“Believe me, I have better reasons to laugh at you,” Quicksilver said with a smirk. “That,” he gestured to her math, “was momentary mercy. Or pity. Maybe both.”

“What are you talkin’ about?” she asked. He couldn’t possibly know how lonely she was feeling, or how disastrous her love life was.

“Don’t you know? Bobby and John…” he stopped suddenly, his attention snapping back to the news suddenly. Rogue wanted to know what he’d been saying, but listened to the news to hear what had caught his attention.

“….will provide a cure for the X-gene and all related freakish power outbursts. Although the cure will be voluntary, it is expected that mutants will flock to the solution to their problems, possibly halving the mutant population in the course of a year. The cure will be available for the first time at the start of next week from Worthington Industries. Now, in sports news…”

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes as the football scores were blared at them. Marie found her voice first. “Were they sayin’ what I think they were sayin’?”

“I don’t believe it either,” Pietro muttered distantly. “Even with the new players, they can’t win a single damn…”

“I meant the cure!”

“Oh, right.” The boy frowned. “Yeah. My father had suspicions that something was in production to slow the increase of mutant kind, but a cure?” He looked horrified. “It’s inhumane.”

“Well yeah, if you have nifty speed powers,” Marie sniped. “How would you feel if you couldn’t touch anyone?”

“It’s not a picnic being this fast, you know,” Quicksilver retorted. “This conversation bored me six point seven seconds ago. If I have caffeine I bounce off the walls until I pass out. Queues produce a killing urge within me, even more so than in ordinary people. Every household ‘convenience’ takes longer than if I just did something myself. I can take a bath and go shopping in the time it takes my bread to toast in the mornings.”

She hadn’t thought of it like that, but still. “You can touch people,” she said with emphasis.

He sighed. “You’d really give up your powers for that?” Marie nodded. She’d give up anything for that. Bobby might be more eager to be with her if he knew he could touch her. “But you wouldn’t be a mutant anymore,” Quicksilver said with disbelief.

“Well I don’t have that Brotherhood conditioning that says mutants are the superior race. We’re freaks Pietro, and if someone out there can help me fix it, then I’ll let them.”

She couldn’t tell what his expression meant. It was either disgust or pity. “You’re doing this for Iceman?”

How in the hell did he know that? “How…”

“It’s obvious, the way you look at him. The way you glare at John, it’s all pretty clear. I notice these things.”

“I’m not just thinking of him.”

“Well I was going to say, if you were… never mind.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to encourage this.”

Marie yanked one of her gloves off. “Spit it out, Quicksilver.”

The pale teen sighed. “Fine. If you’re doing this for Bobby, you’d better hurry up before he gets in John’s pants. I mean, they’re not sure where they stand with each other right now and…”

“WHAT?!?” Marie clapped a hand over her mouth. It was one in the morning, she shouldn’t be shouting like that.

“Right, I figured you didn’t know.”

“Know what? Bobby and John are…”

“Aren’t,” Quicksilver corrected her with an admonishing finger. “At least, not yet. There was a thing between them in the Brotherhood, but the chaos and everything has meant they’ve gotten a bit shy now. It’s kind of cute.”

“Bobby doesn’t… he doesn’t feel that way about John. They’re best friends.”

“Almost with privileges,” Quicksilver added with a grin.

“I knew John might try something with Bobby, but Bobby isn’t interested. What happened at the Brotherhood?”

“Nothing that didn’t happen right here, under your nose,” the snarky speedster replied. His amusement at her distress was getting very irritating.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t have to. All you need to know is that Bobby and John are making slow progress towards each other, and if you want Iceboy for yourself, you’re going to need to cure your parasitic nature as soon as you can.”

Marie nodded absentmindedly. Then she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Quicksilver. “Why are you telling me this, anyway?”

“The honest-to-god truth?”

She nodded. He drummed his fingers on the table. “Fine. You scare the crap out of me. My world would be a happier place if you had no powers with which you could drain my life-force. I’m fast enough to stop anyone in this building, but I still get drained if I touch you. I don’t like that, funny enough.”

“So you want me out the way?”

“Pretty much.”

Marie wasn’t convinced. “That can’t be the only reason.”

Now Quicksilver looked unsure. “It is.”

“I don’t believe you.” She crossed her arms defiantly.

“Promise not to tell a soul?” 

Now that piqued her curiosity. “Promise,” she said, crossing her heart with a finger and trying not to feel like she was in kindergarten.

“I…” He trailed off and looked awkward. “I’m going to bed.” But he was too close to her chair and she grabbed him as he went to run out of the room. She’d grabbed him with her ungloved hand, and gasped as she felt the energy and the memories and the energy, oh god….

She let go, gasping for breath. Quicksilver sagged and she grabbed him and moved him to her chair. She did it in a couple of seconds. This was pretty cool. It felt like eating too much sugar, times a thousand. And now, she knew his secret. Although with the way he’d been acting, she wouldn’t be surprised if Kitty and Bobby had picked up on it too. “You want John.”

He nodded lethargically. “You fucking whore, I feel sluggish now. I don’t like it.”

“You’ll probably recuperate quicker than most anyway, don’t be a drama queen.” She sat down at the other chair. “You want me to lose my powers and get with Bobby so you can have John to yourself. I don’t have any problems with that, you should have just told me. I’m not gonna use it against you or anything like that.” Although with Pietro’s moods and thoughts running through her head, it was hard not to use anything she could to get the upper hand. And now she found herself thinking about John’s ass. Ugh. “Strangely enough, we seem to be on the same page. We’ve got mutual goals. We can help each other.”

“How?”

“I’ll work on Bobby, you work on John. We’ll have them by the end of next week.”

“Pfft, that’s ‘cos you’re so slow. I bet I’ll get John before you get Bobby.”

Marie found herself smirking in a Quicksilver fashion. “You’ve got yourself a bet, Quickie.” She sped off to bed, planning her seduction and blaming her evil pact on the recklessness she’d got from Quicksilver. There was nothing wrong with what they were doing. Bobby would be better with her. He cared about what people thought of him and people would think better of him if he was with her, a normal girl. Let Quicksilver and John screw around being bad boys and offending people. She do anything in her power to keep Bobby out of that.

Whether he liked it or not.


	25. Chapter 25

“Sssh, it’s alright. I’ve got you.”

Pietro sighed and relaxed against John’s arms that wrapped round his hips. This felt so good. He just sat still, breathing deeply as John filled him intimately. “I love you, John, Pyro, whoever the hell you think you are. I love you.”

John smiled at him, then stroked his hand over Pietro’s erection gently. Pietro heard himself moan and he lifted his weight a little, John’s cock throbbing inside him as he moved.

 

Fuck! Just one complete dream, that’s all he asked for. Just one dream where he actually got off, or hell, even if he just got John off. That would be fucking awesome. But no, Pietro Maximoff is a mutant and mutants don’t deserve good sex dreams. 

His silent fuming came to an abrupt halt as he realised he was not in his old room. Or his new one. This was… the medical room?

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, you’re awake?” John was sitting by his bed. John was sitting by his bed! “Professor! He’s awake!”

Voices outside that he hadn’t noticed before, ceased to talk. Xavier wheeled into the room, followed by Cyclops and Wolverine. Cyclops was glaring, but then he always was. Xavier approached his side and smiled at him. “How are you feeling?”

“My everything aches. Just started aching. Why am I aching?”

“You don’t remember?” John said. He turned to the Professor with a suspicious frown. “Why doesn’t he remember?” Pietro wondered if anyone else saw John’s hand briefly touch the mental inhibitor on the back of his neck, to check it was still there. Xavier had made no attempt to get them back since their arrival.

“The impact threw him against a wall, John. You were there. You saw how hard he hit his head. I’m surprised the amnesia isn’t worse. We probably have his recovery time to thank for that.”

“I do heal fast,” Pietro dropped in. “But what am I healing from?”

John put a hand on his shoulder. “Remember, we were gonna go and test ourselves out on a Danger Room simulation. But Storm had gone down there without telling anyone. And since nobody had told her we’d joined the good fight…”

“I remember!” Pietro exclaimed as the memory flooded back to him. “She tried to fry you with a lightning bolt! Well, she tried to fry us both and I would have made it away but then it would have hit you so I… oh.”

“Yeah.” There was a moments awkward silence. “Thanks.”

“Well you know, I heal faster so it’s not so big a deal.”

“They think,” John nodded towards the older mutants in the room, “that they wouldn’t have been able to help me in time if I‘d suffered the impact. But your blood clots quicker, so… yeah. Thanks.”

Pietro just about managed to keep his smile from border-lining manic. “You’re welcome.” He’d saved John’s life, he’d saved John’s life! Let’s see Rogue top that! She’d probably run around constructing life-threatening scenarios for Bobby now, just so she could save him.

“We need to speak about the situation concerning you and Ororo,” Xavier said, looking grave. “This cannot be allowed to continue.”

“Just explain to her that I’m a card-carrying member of the vanilla do-gooder society now,” Pietro said with a shrug. How hard could it be?

“It isn’t that simple,” Cyclops interjected. “She’s messed up because of you. We’ve told her about Pyro’s return to the X-Men, but there’s no way she’s going to allow you to stay here.”

“I wasn’t aware it was her decision,” Pietro said with as much haughtiness as he could manage.

“It’s not,” Xavier said. “But the situation is difficult. Storm is a vital member of our team and a good friend. We don’t want to see her suffer for your crimes against us.”

“Are you kicking me out? I only just got here.”

John’s hand clamped down on his. “If he goes, I go. And we’ve already seen if I go, Bobby goes.”

“And if Bobby goes, Rogue will follow,” Pietro added for good measure, ignoring the confused look John sent him. “You’ll lose at least four members, and that’s if Kitty and Remy don’t come with us, which is unlikely, you know.”

“We ain’t kicking you out, kid,” Wolverine said, looking faintly amused at their pre-emptive determination. “Xavier said we need to speak about the situation and that’s what we’re doing.”

“It’s not my intention to give up on anyone,” Xavier said. “I fully mean to tell her about your choice to stay with us, but it must be done at the right time. As Scott said, she will not adapt well to your presence just yet.”

“So what’s the plan? You keep us both locked up away from each other until she’s no longer crazy? That’s stupid.”

“Locking her up would hardly be conducive to a full mental recovery.” Pietro could hear what wasn’t being said.

“Locking me away would be okay though, right? That’s your plan, isn’t it? You’ll confine me to a room until she feels better. I didn’t come here to be a prisoner! I don’t have to be here at all!”

“Firstly, we will never imprison you in the house because of someone else’s problems, Pietro. Your mental health is important to us too and I am aware that you do not cope well with confinement. But perhaps, kept to a separate part of the house…” Xavier sighed. “But secondly, well, I am afraid that your father has put a price on your head.”

His throat went dry. “He what?”

“We didn’t want to have to burden you with it, but if you want to leave, I feel it is only right to warn you that you would be in grave danger.”

“What kind of price are we talking here?” John asked, clearly trying to get some kind of feel for what danger Pietro was in. Higher rewards would result in more attempts on his life.

“High enough to tempt me,” Cyclops said with a mean grin.

“So I have to stay in the house?”

“I would recommend it,” Xavier said with a nod.

“But I can’t have free roam of the house?”

“I’m afraid not,” Xavier said, looking genuinely apologetic. “You must stay in your room. We’ll give you a games console, along with some books for pleasure and some books for your classes. I will have meals brought to you. If it gets too dull, you can inform me and we will arrange for you to engage in some activity somewhere else in the mansion, ensuring that Ororo is somewhere else at the time. It will not be for long at all,” he said, clearly seeing Pietro’s dismay. “Only until we can make sure Ororo will not try and kill you on sight. I’m sure John will keep you company.”

Pietro looked hopefully at John, who shrugged. “Uh… sure. I mean, it’s the least I can do. You wouldn’t even be in this mess if it weren’t for me.” He really had no idea how true that was.

“Thanks. I’d go insane being cooped up alone for… hell, even a day. It would be like a lifetime of solitude.”

“Do you have to be so melodramatic?” Cyclops asked.

“I believe we are finished for now,” Xavier said. “But I will be sure to come and see you at least once a day, Pietro. In the meantime, I will step up my efforts to soothe Ororo, and hopefully it won’t be long before you can join everyone else in the communal areas of the house.”

Xavier and Cyclops departed. Wolverine stayed behind. “Guess I’d better escort you to your room then, Speedy.”

Pietro sighed and swung his legs out of bed. Ugh, hospital clothes. John saw his discomfort and handed him his own clothes, washed and mildly singed. In a blur, Pietro undressed and put on his clothes. Even though he probably didn’t look bad, even in hospital chic, the sterile smell made him think of laboratories and injections and illegal experimentation. Which led him back to the fact that his father had put a hit out on him. Hard-up mutants from all over the area would be gunning for him. Lucky thing he was the great Pietro Maximoff, fearless and… bah, who was he kidding. He’d be happy hiding in his room. With John.

He tried not to smile as John followed him and Wolverine back to his room. This was bound to work to his advantage. Play the poor imprisoned victim card and he’d have John eating out of his hand. Maybe. And if he could plant some doubts about Bobby’s affections, that would be cool too. He wasn’t an idiot, like Rogue. He knew that what they were doing was wrong, and he was surprised that she could delude herself otherwise. Bobby and John clearly loved each other. If they didn’t, there would hardly be a problem. Pietro would have happily waited until their desire had grown old and they’d left each other, then he would have made his move. But if he let John go now, he might never get another chance. He wasn’t about to lose out. He’d already lost his father and his sister in his efforts to pursue John, he wasn’t about to give up.

He hoped Wanda was okay. She wouldn’t have joined them though, she was too secure with the Brotherhood to go through another life change. She’d be fine. She always was.

When they’d been left alone in Pietro’s room, the speedster threw himself back onto the bed with a loud sigh, making sure he was sprawled invitingly rather than slob-like.

“What did you mean before, about Rogue following Bobby out of here? They’re not an item anymore. Didn’t you know that? Wait. How did you know that they were together in the first place?”

Quick thinking, his area of expertise. “I didn’t know they were an item before,” he said in what he hoped was an innocent tone. “I just saw them all over each other and assumed that they’d been together some time.”

“When did you see them?” It kind of hurt to see the pain on John’s face.

“Yesterday, after second period.” Bobby had gone to check Rogue had managed alright on her math homework, clearly feeling a little guilt-ridden for not helping her. But John wouldn’t know that. He’d just know that Bobby hadn’t been with him.

“I wondered where he’d gone,” John said, sounding a bit lost.

“You want to watch a movie? I have Batman Begins. I know you love comic book films.”

“Maybe tomorrow. I’m gonna call it a night. I’ve got… stuff.”

Pietro was a little disappointed when John left so suddenly, but not devastated. He’d already progressed further towards his goal than he’d expected to today. 

He put on his blue satiny pyjamas, then ruffled his hair to make it appear sleep-tousled. He normally slept completely still, so he had to work for that cute, just woke up look. It would be worth it when John came back tomorrow.

Rogue was so out of her league.


	26. Chapter 26

Nobody was around. His Danger Room session with Mr Summers, Piotr and Kitty had ended half an hour ago, giving Bobby the rest of the evening free. Nothing to do and nobody around. Boring.

He peeled off his X-Man uniform and wandered into the en-suite shower. He changed the water from temperature nine to temperature three. John kept changing it for his own showers. Bobby didn’t mind though, it was one of those odd little things he’s missed in John’s absence. That, and hearing John’s loud swearing in the mornings when he’d forgotten to put the shower onto a higher heat.

Bobby sighed under the refreshing spray of the shower. It was so good having John home. Knowing that he was staying, that they had all the time in the world to get closer to each other. It made everything more relaxed, something which had been missing in all their times together before. Since they’d returned to the Institute, they hadn’t made love. Some nights, they’d stared across at each other as if wondering why they weren’t doing it and why they weren’t sharing a bed, but then they’d always gone to sleep apart.

Except for a few nights when John had created fire in their room. They dealt with those easily now, Bobby waking John then putting out the fire, before slipping wordlessly into his bed and holding him close. Bobby seemed to absorb the heat from John’s body, though it was more difficult than ever to extinguish his flames once they were independent. John never started fires now while Bobby held him. Bobby had asked if he knew why, but John had no clue. Or at least he said he didn’t. It didn’t really matter, it made Bobby feel important to be such a grounding force for his boyfriend. Perhaps John’s counselling sessions with Professor Xavier would help figure it out.

Bobby switched off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a towel from the rack around his waist. He walked back into the main area of the bedroom, flopping onto his bed face-first . Today’s work-out had been thorough, and he was exhausted. 

What he wouldn’t give to have John in his bed now. Not for anything sexual, necessarily, though that would be good too. But John was off with Quicksilver like he had been most of this week, which sucked. He seemed to be there all the time. The one time Bobby had brought it up in a slightly bitter way, John had kissed him and gently reminded him that Quicksilver had done a lot for both of them. If he hadn’t hit Mystique, Kitty could be dead and they could still be at the Brotherhood’s mercy. And if Quicksilver hadn’t shoved John out the way when he did the other day, John could have been killed at Miss Munroe’s hands. That thought chilled Bobby the way ice could not. So he had to give in and allow his boyfriend to keep the psychopath company. It just bothered Bobby slightly. He’d seen the way Quicksilver eyed John and it didn’t take a genius to see the other teen wanted him. 

But John wouldn’t stray. What they’d found was too precious. After taking this long to reach the stage they were at, neither of them would throw it away.

He heard the door open, but couldn’t be bothered looking up at John. He was comfortable with his face almost entirely pressed into the pillow. 

A finger trailed up his spine gently, making him shiver. “Mmm.”

Then a warm palm rubbed up over his shoulders, pressing at tense places and rubbing gently. It felt good. Really relaxing. Really strange. It was when the fingers stroked down towards his towel that he realised the hands were too small and the fingers too skinny to be John’s. He quickly turned onto his back to see Rogue looking down at him. Her gloves were nowhere in sight.

“You can touch people?” he said, for the moment not asking why she was touching him.

“I can touch you,” she said with a coy smile, and leant in to kiss him. He’d be lying if he said he’d never wondered what it would be like to kiss her without her powers. Maybe that was why he let it happen. She tasted minty and cold. And without the rush to feel as much as he could before she sucked his life-force, there was no passion. It was boring. Not like John, who used his tongue to make love to Bobby’s mouth. John, who was suddenly in the doorway, oh god no…

Bobby pulled back from Rogue and shoved her away, not even glancing at her as she fell to the floor. John had already started to leave. “John, wait!”

The boy just broke into a run, getting further from Bobby as he reached the far end of the corridor and banged on the bedroom door there. The door opened and John slammed it in Bobby’s face after he’d gone into Quicksilver’s room. Bobby banged on the door. “Open up, John! That wasn’t what it looked like, I swear!”

“You were fucking kissing her, you fucking fuck! Don’t tell me, you were actually sucking the poison from a snake bite on her tongue! And how the hell did you touch her?!”

There was a low mumbling that sounded like Pietro was saying something quietly to John. 

“Well that’s just great.” John’s voice was cracking and with it, Bobby’s heart. “She goes and cures herself of her mutant disease and now you don’t need me anymore. Well, you know she’s only cured one disease, Bobby-boy, you don’t know what she’s picked up from Logan in the afternoon she’s been able to touch people. I bet she’s been screwing her way through the mansion and you just happened to be next.”

“Shut up John.” He couldn’t bear to hear him so bitter and broken.

The door opened a little and Bobby’s face started stinging as it closed again. “Ow, Quicksilver, do you have to get involved? John, your friend hit me.”

“Good. You deserved it.”

“John,” Bobby leaned his forehead against the wooden door, “I’m sorry. Please, we need to talk about this. I didn’t know it was her.”

“What?!”

“Well, not at first. And then, well, I was curious. But I don’t love her. I don’t even want her.” That was still a bit of a half-truth even now, but anything it took to get John out of Quicksilver’s room would be worth it. “Johnny, please.”

The door opened a crack, but to Bobby’s disappointment, Quicksilver peered through the gap, his grey eyes cold with hate. “He doesn’t want to see you.”

“But I need to see him,” Bobby tried to push the door open further, but Quicksilver was stronger than he looked, and refused to budge.

“You need to go back to your room and think about what you’ve done, before I turn you inside out, Iceboy.”

“Please Bobby,” John’s voice was quiet and sad. “Just give me some time. I’ll be back later, okay?”

Bobby sighed and gave up. John clearly wasn’t receptive to any excuses right now. Well that was okay, it would give him time to think of what to say. He’d been in the wrong, he knew that much. Marie didn’t know that him and John were working on a relationship, it had been his duty to push her away. Preferably before she’d kissed him. But he’d let it happen. He’d cheated on John. 

When he got back to his room, Marie was sitting on the end of his bed. She wasn’t Rogue anymore, couldn’t be without her powers. “So you took the cure?”

She nodded. The Professor had told them all about the cure being manufactured for Worthington Industries. Apparently the dude in charge had a mutant son or something, so he thought he was justified. Bobby could sort of see his point of view. He knew his parents would want him to take it. He hadn’t called them in a while. “I did it for you, Bobby.”

“You shouldn’t have. You should have asked me. That’s not what I wanted.”

“What about what I want, huh?” The girl got up in his face angrily. “What about my needs, my love for you?”

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have run off with Gambit the second you found you could touch him. You hurt Kitty and whether I said anything or not, you hurt me too.”

She shook her head. “It was a mistake. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am.”

“Probably almost as sorry as I am for kissing you.” His stomach churned at her crestfallen expression. Pain looked even worse on a pretty girl.

“You don’t care for me anymore?” she looked as though she might cry. “Not even a little? I never stopped loving you, Bobby.” She reached out and took one of his hands in hers. “You don’t know what it was like, not being able to touch you. I thought that me and Remy could just be a short thing, something that I could get out of my system before we made another go of things. I thought….”

“You thought a lot of things,” Bobby couldn’t stop himself from raising his voice. “Did you once think about talking to me? I loved you, Rogue! I didn’t care about touching. You couldn’t touch, so I didn’t even think about it! Yeah, it got tough sometimes, but when it did, I reached out to you! That’s what couples do! They turn to each other when things get rough. I could deal with never touching, just taking things one day at a time, as slow as we could. You’re the one who decided I wasn’t worth it.”

She looked up at the doorway and let go of Bobby’s hand. He followed her gaze and saw John leaning on the doorframe, playing with a lighter. He raised an eyebrow. “Should I go?”

“No!” Bobby was at his side before he could even make a move towards leaving. “No, please. Marie was just going.” He glared at the girl when she didn’t move, making her run out of the door.

“That wasn’t very nice,” John said in a neutral tone.

“I thought you said you’d be by later.”

“I can go if you want.”

“No.” Bobby grabbed his wrist and tugged him back from the doorway, closing the door after him. “Stay here, with me. I just thought you were mad at me…”

“Oh, I am. But while Pietro thinks I should calm down before I come and talk to you…” the flame from the lighter snaked up his arm, forcing Bobby to let go of his wrist, “I think we should talk now while I’m still pissed at you.”

“Uh… why?”

John made a dismissive gesture with his free hand. “I’ll only end up forgiving you if I give you time to think of a decent excuse.”

“I’m not going to make excuses, John. I know I’ve done a bad thing. I shouldn’t have kissed her. Not when I’m in love with you.” Bobby wanted John to look at him, to see the adoration in Bobby’s eyes, but the pyromaniac was still playing with his lighter.

“You know why I left the Brotherhood in the first place?”

Bobby shrugged. He hadn’t really thought too much about it, after everything that had happened. He didn’t know why this was relevant, but if John wanted to take the focus away from Bobby’s betrayal, that was fine. “You wanted control, right?” 

John frowned, like that answer wasn’t one-hundred percent accurate. “Kind of. But the number one reason,” he glanced towards the door as if to check it was closed, “was fear. I was terrified of everything. I was scared by the way my powers were spiralling out of control, and the way Magneto was making me feel.” He started to pace the floor of their room, still not looking at Bobby. “And I found myself thinking, this would never happen if Bobby was with me. Or if I’d stayed with him. Because at the end of the day, I’ve started more fires because of you than I did in all my days at the Brotherhood, but you know what?” Now he looked up at Bobby with narrowed accusative eyes. “I’ve never burned you. Not once. Not even that time in my first week here when I tried to melt you.”

Bobby shrugged again, still not comprehending. “It’s our powers, it’s hardly….”

“No! No, it’s not our powers!” John looked slightly manic now, and it would have been unsettling if Bobby hadn’t seen him like this a million times. “I encountered an ice mutant a few months back in some military compound,” he caught Bobby’s inquisitive look, “it’s a long story. But basically….” he looked at Bobby with grave and wary eyes. “Do you trust me Bobby?”

“Of course.” It didn’t even need questioning.

“Hold out your hand.” Bobby did, putting his hand flat out in the air between them.

John ran his fingers lightly over Bobby’s knuckles. With his other hand, he flicked his lighter on. Bobby glanced at the flame where it sat almost still in the calm air of the room. As if having second thoughts, John let go of the lighter and let the flame die as the zippo fell to the floor. Bringing up the hand that had trailed over Bobby’s knuckles a moment ago, he clicked his fingers and a small flame appeared on his thumb. “Seemed like a situation for my own personal fire,” he whispered in response to Bobby’s confusion. Somehow he made it sound sexy.

“What situation? John, what are you…”

John moved the lit thumb to the underside of Bobby’s hand, up to his palm. Bobby ignored the biological imperative to pull back his hand and let John bring the flame closer and closer. As it reached up to his skin he prepared for the pain, but there was none. The flame had split into two neat branches of fire, both moving around Bobby’s hand and reuniting as one above him. It looked like he’d made a hole in a fire. “I don’t understand.”

“I did,” John murmured, watching the flames dancing together carefully near Bobby’s skin. “I understood way back then. At least, I thought I did. I couldn’t be sure, but this is proof.”

“What, your flames avoid my ice skin?”

“As long as you don’t frost yourself, your skin is the same as everyone else’s.” John brought the flame back into his hand and it became a small fireball in his palm. “I killed that other ice mutant. Burned him to the bone.”

Bobby swallowed the bile. It wasn’t John’s fault those things happened. He was doing it because of Magneto. “I still don’t… what is this proof of?”

“I can’t hurt you. Just you. Magneto had to shield himself and Mystique when I burned things. You’ve never had to protect yourself from me. You just assumed that small fires couldn’t hurt you, and you’ve never been in a situation where it’s been properly tested. I guess in retrospect, Magneto’s plan would have just killed Kitty, had you not interfered.”

“What’s so special about me then?”

John looked at him like he was a moron. “I love you.” And that was almost a gut punch, to hear it put in such a ‘d’uh’ tone of voice. Like Bobby should have known that all along, and was doing John a great disservice to not have known. “That’s why I came back. I know I’ll never lose control and hurt you because I can’t hurt you. Not at the moment, anyway. The day you really hurt me is probably the day I kick your sorry ass.” Said like it was bound to happen.

“I’ll never hurt you.”

“You hurt me today!” John snapped. “And it wasn’t the first time.”

“What do you mean?”

“All that shit with Rogue. That’s what made me leave in the first place. I couldn’t bear knowing you loved her more than me.”

“I love you more.”

“That remains to be seen,” John muttered coolly, back to playing with his lighter. “The fact of the matter is, I came back because I knew I’d become something dangerous. I knew I was losing control and all I was still certain of was that I loved you. And I was sure I was still unable to hurt you.”

Bobby ran a hand up John’s cheek, absorbing everything he’d been told. “What are you saying to me, John? Why are you telling me all this now, after what I just did?”

“I’ve got a lot invested in you emotionally. I just wanted to warn you.”

“Warn me?”

John looked up at him and Bobby could have sworn there was fire dancing behind his eyes. “If I ever see you touch her, ever again, you’ll find out that hell has a lot more fury than a fucking woman scorned.”


	27. Chapter 27

Nothing was working. This resistance was unprecedented. Pietro had done everything short of sitting in John’s lap and kissing him stupid, yet still he was being ignored. He was only being ignored in a sexual context though, him and John were becoming better friends everyday. But it wasn’t enough. Pietro didn’t have friends, he had acquaintances. Sometimes, he had sex with said acquaintances. That was fine. But friendship was pointless. You couldn’t rely on friends and you couldn’t trust them to make the right decision on important subjects when they weren’t objective. Maybe he was just emotionally deficient. But he wasn’t sexually deficient, and that’s what mattered. He had to get in John’s pants, then he could go back to the Brotherhood with a sense of accomplishment. His father might even take the price off of his head if he returned grovelling.

But it would take forever at this rate. He’d end up scheming evil schemes at their wedding as he passed John the ring. And Rogue would run in screaming ‘no Bobby, he’ll never love you like I do!’ and would only succeed in driving them closer together. Pietro had listened to everything that had occurred in Bobby’s room yesterday. Trust that stupid whore to ruin things and make this even more difficult. 

If only he had that drug that his father had used on John. God, the pyromaniac had never been so attractive as when he’d been naked and sweating and desperate. But Pietro didn’t possess anything like that. Only mind-altering substance he owned was the bottle of vodka John had ‘acquired’ for him, for when he got bored in his solitary confinement.

Okay, so it wasn’t quite solitary. Kitty and Gambit had dropped in earlier on their way out to ask if he wanted anything rented from the video shop. Nice of them, but Pietro saw through the X-Men’s pathetic attempts at getting him to stay. Xavier was probably still worried about Pietro’s loyalties. He ought to be. Pietro was here until he got some nookie, then he was gone.

The Professor visited daily, as he said he would. They had harmless chats about nothing, Pietro always made sure the conversations were on neutral ground. Just because he’d left his father didn’t mean he’d betray the old man either. It would take more than attempted assassination to make Pietro Maximoff a traitor to his mutant blood. After all, it was a large amount of money being offered for his life, it sort of showed he was important. Made him feel even more special.

He’d nipped down the hall and eavesdropped briefly about half an hour ago, to see why John hadn’t visited him yet today. It had been painful to hear that Bobby was being forgiven in the most physical way for what he had done with Rogue yesterday. This shouldn’t be happening. It wasn’t fair that Iceboy cheats and gets laid! It wasn’t fair!

Pietro scrubbed at his eyes angrily when he realised they were watering. “Fucking Iceman.”

There was a knock at his door. “Give me a second!”

As soon as the last syllable had left his lips, he’d dried his eyes and done his hair and tidied his room. He pulled open the door to see John grinning in that lazy ‘I had great sex’ way. “Hey Pietro. Thought I’d check you hadn’t hung yourself from boredom yet.”

“I was just about to, but you interrupted. Come on in.”

John wandered in and flopped onto the bed casually. “I know I normally come by earlier than this, but I’ve been busy.”

“Busy with Bobby?” Pietro said with a false grin. It wouldn’t do to act jealous.

John smirked in response. “Maybe.”

“So you forgave him for what happened with Rogue already?”

“You should call her Marie now. She’s given up her mutant identity.”

“Stupid bitch.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So you’ve forgiven him?”

“Forgave him last night.” John shrugged. “If I didn’t, he’d only go running back to her, then what would I do?”

Pietro wanted to say ‘sleep with me’ but didn’t think that would go down well. “You could find someone else.”

“I love him, though. It’s not like I’m just being awkward, I love him. I don’t want anyone else.”

“You don’t want anyone?” Ouch.

“Well, I still find people attractive and stuff, but I wouldn’t want a relationship with anyone but Bobby. He makes me feel… all the stuff I want to feel. In a safe way. It’s not as intense as it was in the Brotherhood.”

“Surely that’s a bad thing.”

“No, not really. I can’t explain it.” John shook his head. “What you up to today then?”

“Fuck all. Read those books Xavier brought me, twice, played some Final Fantasy, masturbated, and now I’m talking to you.” 

John laughed. “I didn’t need that much detail. You could have left one of those out.”

Pietro mock-frowned. “You don’t like Final Fantasy games?”

John laughed again. The sound made Pietro’s heart do funny things. “You’re something, Pietro, you know that?”

Pietro smiled. Oh, he was something alright. “I was thinking about starting work on that vodka you got me. Drunkenness is all that can save me from boredom now.”

“They say drinking out of boredom is a sign of alcohol dependency,” John said in a lecturing tone.

“So tell Xavier confinement is driving me to drink and he might let me out.”

John grinned. “Right, and when he asks how you got the alcohol?”

“Tell him Rogue snuck it in.”

Both boys chuckled evilly. “Somehow I don’t think he’ll buy that. He is a psychic, you know.”

“Bah. Anyway,” Pietro fetched the clear bottle and waved it in front of John’s face, “you want a drink?”

“I don’t think so. Me and Bobby are going to the cinema later. He doesn’t approve of alcohol.”

“Don’t tell me he’s teetotal,” Pietro said with disgust.

“He never used to mind, but…”John trailed off. 

“What?”

“You promise not to tell anyone?”

Pietro raised an eyebrow. “Who am I going to tell?” He spread his arms, indicating the empty room. “This is my home now. My home and jail.”

“Very dramatic. But anyway, Bobby’s uncle drank and he got himself killed in a car accident a year back. Bobby took it badly. They got along well. Bobby hasn’t touched a drop since. Which I guess is okay, since we’re not technically legal yet anyway.”

Pietro shrugged. “So why should you be dry just because his uncle got smooshed?”

“Ever the sensitive one, aren‘t you,” John quipped dryly. “Bobby doesn’t like to see people drunk either. Maybe that’s why he pushed me away when I threw myself at him last time.”

“Is this the same time that you told me about?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Well, one drink won’t even get you tipsy.”

John looked uneasy. “I don’t know, Pietro. You know I don’t handle my alcohol well.”

“One vodka and coke, John. Please? Keep me company? If I drink all this myself I’ll die.”

“You could always last it out. I never intended for you to have it all in one go.”

Pietro poured out a double measure of vodka into a glass then put in a dash of coke. He handed it to John, who took it with a sigh. Pietro made sure John was drinking and not paying attention while he poured himself a single shot and topped it up with coke. “How long before you go out then?”

“We’re not going until seven, so I can hang out with you for an hour or so.” Another swig. Maybe if he didn’t gulp it, he wouldn’t have a problem with his drink. Not that Pietro was going to say anything. He’d seen John drunk, he became easy. Or easier, rather.

Pietro raised an eyebrow. “You think I want you around for a couple of hours? As if.”

“You’re right,” John downed the rest of his drink and placed the empty glass on the table. “I’ll just leave you on your own and go and have some more great sex.” He made as if to stand and Pietro grabbed his arm.

“No! Don’t leave me alone! I’ll…” He glanced around. “Jump out the window!”

John smiled and sat back down. “Drama Queen.”

Pietro looked as offended as he could as he poured John another double vodka and coke. They weren’t large glasses, but still John was ploughing through it. John frowned at the glass as he took it. “Singles after this, Pietro.”

“Sure.” Pietro plugged a second controller into the PS2 console. “You want to play a game?”

“What game?”

“I don’t know. I got…” He started browsing through the cases Cyclops had brought up. “Some car games, some soccer games, some fighting games….”

“Fighting games?”

“Soul Caliber or Tekken.”

“Uh…” John looked conflicted. “I’m better at Soul Calibur, but Tekken has better characters.”

“I say we play Tekken.” Pietro took out the disc and put it in the computer. “And how about we do a shot of vodka whenever we lose a round?”

“I dunno…”

“I’ve never played Tekken before,” Pietro said, trying to get John’s agreement.

“Never?”

“Nope.”

John grinned. “Fine. You’re gonna be on your ass. I’m not good but I’m better than that.”

Pietro smiled as he pressed start. It wouldn’t matter how much he lost, alcohol only affected him in ridiculous amounts. Besides, his mutant reflexes allowed him to rule over every game. John was sexy as hell, but he really was too cocky sometimes.

They started a game. Pietro picked Violet, John picked Kazuya. Pietro won, John drank. Pietro picked Eddie, John picked Kazuya. Pietro won. John drank. Pietro picked Xiaoyu, John picked Kazuya, Pietro won, John drank.

This went on for about an hour.

“You know,” John slurred, frowning as ‘Player One Wins’ flashed up on the screen again, “I’m thinkin’ Kazuya is not my man.”

“Bobby’s your man.” 

John sniggered. “You know what I mean. He’s not a winner.”

“Maybe you’re just shit.”

“Hey!” John punched Pietro on the arm. “You just got first-time player’s luck. Always happens. People play a game first time and they kick ass, then they never win ever again. Next time, I’ll own you.”

If only, Pietro thought. “Time for another game?”

John checked his watch. “Shit. I’ve gotta go get Bobby. We’re gonna see Superman Returns! It looks good. Kevin Spacey will definitely play a great Lex Luthor.”

Pietro nodded and forced a smile, even while his stomach dropped at the thought of John leaving. All that alcohol, just to make it easier for fucking Iceboy to get in John’s pants. “Have fun. Bring me a ‘what’s on’ booklet so I can see what I’m missing.”

“I’ll bring ya two!” John said, beaming at him before stumbling out of the room. Despair and loneliness aside, it was enough to make Pietro laugh. John was so happy when drunk.

The speedster had just started a solo game on Tekken when his door burst open and John came back into his room, dropping onto the bed with a sigh and bouncing slightly. “Bobby’s not in the room.”

Pietro went and sat beside him on the bed. “Are you going to look for him? He must be in the mansion somewhere.” Stay here with me, he pleaded wordlessly.

“He’ll find me if he wants me.” John flopped back so he was laying on Pietro’s bed. “ ‘If’, being the word there.”

“What do you mean?” Pietro asked, laying down on his front beside John and resting on his elbows so he could look at the boy’s face. John looked sad all of a sudden.

“He kissed her.”

“I thought you were okay with that? That you’d forgiven him?”

“I’m not okay with it,” John said, thumping the bed with a clenched fist. “I’m really not. I said I was, but I’m not. It hurt. I thought… I thought he was over her, but he said she left him for Remy. So she leaves him and he gets me to prove a fucking point!”

Pietro bit his tongue to stop the reassuring platitudes from flooding out. He tried to remind himself that this insecurity worked in his favour. “John,” he kissed the pyrokinetic’s forehead, “you’ll be okay. No matter what happens between you, Bobby and Rogue, you’ll be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”

John took Pietro’s hand and stared into his eyes. “You mean it?”

Pietro nodded. “Yeah. I care about you, or I wouldn’t have followed you here.”

John was still staring at him, something indecipherable in his expression. Pietro took a risk and straddled him, leaning in to kiss him.

But John turned his face away at the last moment. “I can’t. I just can’t. You’re… Pietro, you’re attractive. Really. In a male supermodel way. But I can’t.”

“I’m not him.”

John shook his head, looking even more miserable now than he did before. “I’m sorry Pietro.”

There was a knock on the door, shortly before Bobby entered the room. “Hey, is John…” he trailed off when he saw his boyfriend in an intimate embrace with Pietro on the bed.

“Bobby! Man, I didn’t think you were coming.” John wriggled out from underneath Pietro and fell off of the bed. He started chuckling and couldn’t stop until Bobby had pulled him to his feet. “Sorry. Sorry.” He waved at Pietro. “I’ll come see you tomorrow, kay?”

Pietro nodded and watched Bobby drag John out of his room. 

Maybe, for the first time in his life, it was time to admit defeat.


	28. Chapter 28

Kitty Pryde was not a psychic. Nor was she stupid. She was, in fact, socially aware. She knew the names of everyone in the mansion. Only the Professor could claim the same feat and he cheated. Kitty could tell when people were going to break up (when she was paying attention) and she could tell when people were going to get together (like Bobby and John). And, like now, she could tell when an argument was in the air. 

Bobby was being too polite. He was a polite person naturally, but there was a point where it stopped being nice and started being cold. And he’d been like that all the way to the cinema. It was horrible and uncomfortable, but it was how his parents had raised him. If you can’t say anything nice, smile thinly and look away.

And John, well, John was just drunk. Very much so. He’d tripped over his own feet three times on their way to the cinema. Kitty and Remy had shared that ‘awkward couple’ look and said nothing. Every time Bobby pulled him to his feet he tugged harder. If John fell over much more, Bobby might dislocate his arm. Not that the pyromaniac had noticed Bobby’s discontent. He was telling jokes and bitching about homework and talking about the previews of the film he’d seen, completely oblivious to the tension.

In foyer of the cinema, they split up to get refreshments or use the toilet before the film. Kitty went to the girls’ bathroom to redo her make-up and touch up her hair. She may be worried about Bobby and John, but this was still a date for her and Remy. After checking she looked as cute as possible, she returned to the snack bar, where John was already stuffing his face with salted popcorn. “I’m hungry, you know,” he said with his mouth full. “Really strangely hungry.”

“We are going to a restaurant afterwards,” Bobby said, looking down his nose at John’s messy eating.

“Oh yeah! I forgot we were. The chicken place down the road right?” The three of them nodded. “I love the chicken place! They do the hottest chicken in…everywhere.”

Bobby sighed. “The film will be starting soon.” He didn’t look particularly happy about it.

“We’d better be headin’ in then,” Remy said, putting his arm around Kitty’s shoulders and walking over to the stand to present their tickets.

Behind them, Kitty could hear quiet but irritated argument. 

“Why’re you so miserable?”

“I’m not.”

“I can tell, Bobby. Come on. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Can we talk about this later?”

“Bobby…”

“Later.”

John’s sigh was loud and it caused a few people to look at them as they went to their seats. They had four near an aisle, near the back. Remy sat down first, then Kitty, then Bobby sat between her and John. 

“You think dey be alright?” Remy asked her, his breath in her ear making her spine tingle. She took the drink from his hand and sipped.

“They’ll be fine. Sssh, trailers!”

The first trailer was for some lame action flick. The next was for a film ‘Miami Vice’ with Colin Farrell in it. Also looked crap. Kitty sighed. Looked like this might be the last movie date for a while. Best make the most of it. The next trailer started off promising, talking about your greatest fears. But when the title ‘Snakes on a Plane’ boomed onto the screen, there was hysterical laughter from the end of the row. Kitty put her face behind her hand, trying to hide her embarrassment and amusement as people shushed John angrily. The pyromaniac ignored them and kept laughing, occasionally putting on a deeper theatrical voice and saying ‘Snakes. On a Plane.”

She could hear Bobby’s teeth clenching. This was not good. John saw Bobby’s lack of laughter and leant into him. “Snakes on a Plane, Bobby! Not funny?”

“Hilarious, John,” Bobby uttered in a monotone. Kitty’s heart broke at the confusion on John’s face as the boy sat back in his chair. This was painful. He didn’t know why Bobby was mad at him anymore than Kitty did, though she guessed it had something to do with his drunkenness. 

But at least Bobby’s curt response shut John up in time for the movie. Kitty was so into it that she sat with the straw nearly at her lips for about ten minutes before Remy pushed her hand and poked her in the face with it. She giggled and flicked some drink at him. A woman in front tutted loudly so they stopped mucking around. 

Kitty snuggled up against Remy’s side. This was perfect, except for Bobby and John’s spat. No, this was perfect. Bobby and John could happen separately from them. Kitty had risked enough on their relationship, joining the Brotherhood and stuff, it was time she lived for herself and Remy. She cared about Bobby and John, but there were things they’d have to sort out on their own.

Kitty was particularly liking the romance aspect of the film with Lois, Clark and Richard. Richard White looked a bit like Mr Summers. 

“Bobby…”

Kitty glanced over at her friends. John was pressing up against Bobby and kissing him on the cheek. Bobby didn’t look happy about it.

“Quit it, John. I’m not in the mood.”

“But why?”

“I’m just not. Quit it.”

When John ignored him and continued to grope at him, Bobby pushed him. John lost his balance and fell into the aisle, causing people to scowl at him. He stuck his middle finger up at a particularly disapproving couple.

“Cheri,” Remy nudged Kitty, drawing her attention away from John’s fall. “Is it me, or is dat corner of the screen smokin’?”

Kitty looked towards where he was pointing. Sure enough, by the curtains where they had been drawn, the screen was letting off visible smoke. “Bobby, switch seats with me. Now.”

“What?”

“You’re annoying him.”

“Oh, god forbid I annoy John,” Bobby rolled his eyes sarcastically. Then the entire screen went up in flame. “Oh shit. John!” He ran over and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him to his feet, for what it was worth. But John was being stubborn and letting his body fall limp so Bobby couldn’t pull him up. “John, come on, we have to go!”

People were screaming now and running from the showing, pushing past Bobby and almost standing on John in their haste. But John just sat there, watching the fire blankly. Kitty ran through the crowd - literally - and knelt down in front of her friend. “John, please? We can’t stay here.”

John looked at her, then up at the fire, then back up at Bobby. Then he scrubbed at his eyes and put a hand out in the direction of the fire. A look of concentration on his face was the only indication that he was the person calming the flames. Eventually, the flames were gone. 

He ignored Bobby’s outstretched hand and held a hand out to Kitty, who glanced uneasily at Bobby before helping John to his feet.

“We going to the chicken place?” he said casually before walking out and leaving them all stunned. Bobby was the first to run after him, leaving Kitty and Remy in the dark, empty cinema room.

“What was dat?”

“That was the first sign of trouble. But I think it’s brought Bobby to his senses, maybe they’ll be alright now.”

Remy took her hand and they followed their friends out of the cinema. “I hope you’re right, Cheri.”

On their way to the restaurant, it was as though the rest of the evening hadn’t occurred. John was… Kitty didn’t want to say sulking, but he wasn’t speaking outside of monosyllables and he refused to look at any of them. Either he was sulking, or he was very deep in thought. 

Bobby had now veered from cold to forced cheer. He kept trying to get John involved in conversations about nothings, like perhaps trying to see Superman Returns some other time later in the week, when things had improved. Secretly, Kitty decided she would watch it again with Remy alone. This drama was not good for her mental health and fires weren’t much good for her physical health.

In the chicken place, John didn’t order any food, so Bobby ordered him a spicy chicken in pitta bread and chips. John didn’t thank him, just said he wasn’t hungry.

“You were hungry before.”

“Must be full of popcorn,” John mumbled with a shrug.

“Well you can’t live on popcorn. You’ll be happy when you’ve got the food.”

John’s answering glare was frightening. “Don’t patronise me.”

“I’m not, I…”

“I’m going out for a smoke. Be right back.”

He left them sitting at the table and went outside. They could still see him through the large windows, leaning on the iron fence by the car park and lighting up a cigarette.

“I…uh….didn’t realise he smoked,” Kitty managed.

“Um, no, me neither,” Bobby said. “I knew he used to, but he’d pretty much quit by the time he got to Xavier’s. Maybe he picked it up again in the Brotherhood.” He met her eyes and sighed. “Kitty, Remy, I’m sorry this night’s been so awkward. Something happened just before we came out and we didn’t have time to talk it over, so it’s gotten a little out of hand. I didn’t mean to ruin your date and I know John didn’t either. It’s just…”

Remy put a hand up to interrupt him. “You got time to talk it out wit’ him now. Go.”

Bobby looked outside and watched John inhale the poison. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“No rush,” Kitty said with an understanding smile. She wanted John and Bobby to take as long as they needed to resolve their problems. 

Bobby approached John slowly, like you would a frightened animal. John didn’t turn to face him. Remy took hold of her hand on the table. “You t’ink people back at the film will blame mutants for the fire?”

She thought it over. “Probably. I mean, people would blame mutants even if we hadn’t been there, and I phased through some people to get to John. I just hope John doesn’t get into any trouble for it. He’s been so good with his control since he came back.” 

They both watched out of the window. The boys wouldn’t like being observed, but they had their backs turned and were none the wiser. 

Bobby was right beside John, putting a hand on his back and saying something. John pushed the arm away. Bobby threw his arms up and Kitty could just about hear his raised voice through the double-glazed windows.

“Like this is my fault?”

Now John turned to look at him, confusion evident on his face, lit up by the streetlights. He looked like he was asking something, probably what the hell Bobby was talking about. 

Bobby was clearly in rant mode, gesturing and almost pacing. Kitty couldn’t quite hear what he was saying, but she saw the shocked look on John’s face before the pyromaniac threw his cigarette to the floor and grabbed Bobby’s shoulders, halting the other teen’s tirade. 

John said something. Bobby shook his head.

John said something again, shaking Bobby a little this time before pushing him away and pulling a flame up from the cigarette and cradling it in his hand. It was the John way of ignoring someone. Bobby looked uncertain and Kitty saw him glance towards the restaurant, as if contemplating his escape.

No, not yet, she thought, you’re not done yet.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Bobby went back to John. Her food was placed in front of her and she mumbled a distracted thanks to the waitress, not once taking her eyes away from the window. When Bobby grabbed John’s hand that held the fire, Kitty gasped. But when steam arose from between their clasped hands, she smiled. Bobby put his free hand beneath John’s chin and tilted his face up, catching his lips in a kiss.

“Aw, ain’t dat cute,” Remy said in a feigned cutesy tone.

“Shut up,” Kitty laughed, nudging him.

Bobby was saying something to John now, still holding his chin and his hand. John shook his head, but it looked like an affectionate despairing of Bobby’s stupidity more than genuine disagreement. Especially when John pulled him into a hug, with Bobby’s head resting on his shoulder. Another quick peck, then they were walking back to the restaurant. Kitty squeaked and quickly started on her food as though she hadn’t been spying on their reconciliation.

They were holding hands as they sat down. Their food had already arrived and was cooling in front of them. John ignored the knife and fork and tucked in messily. Bobby smiled. “Told you.”

After he’d swallowed his mouthful, John retorted, “so what? You paid for my dinner. Sucker.”

“Oh, well you know it is the gentlemanly thing to do, to buy your girl…”

A blunt dinner knife was waved at him. “Don’t go there Bobby, I’m fucking warning you not to fucking finish that sentence!”

Other diners looked slightly alarmed, but the atmosphere at the important table was now a light one.

“Yeah, don’t finish dat sentence. Kitty’s payin’ fo’ my meal.”

She smiled. “Yeah, you’d better put out.” They laughed.

“Listen,” John’s tone was serious. “I’m sorry about…”

“It’s fine,” Kitty said. “But you’re both automatically signed up to help me and Remy in our next argument.”

A mobile phone ringtone interrupted their amicable conversation. Bobby rooted through his pocket, eventually locating his phone.

“Hello?… Oh, hey Scott, what’s….” Bobby’s expression grew serious. “Oh. So it’s mission time?… Right. Me and Kitty?…Really? You sure?… Well, okay… We’re on our way.” He flipped his phone shut and shoved it back in his pocket. “Eat up everyone, we’ve got a mission.”

“You mean, you and Kitty got a mission,” Remy said for clarification.

“No. All of us.” Bobby looked as surprised as them.

“Even me?” John asked, shocked that he would be involved so soon after his return. He hadn’t even been a part of missions before his departure.

“Yeah. Apparently the Professor wants to speak about it and speed is of the essence, so we need to hurry.”

“I’ve finished,” John said, waving the waitress over for the bill. “So what’s this essential mission anyway?”

“The Whitehouse has just launched a new Sentinel program. And it’s gone haywire.”


	29. Chapter 29

John felt rough, even after Bobby had bought him a coffee on the way back to the school. The day, with all its alcohol and drama, was beginning to catch up with him. And now they wanted him to mix it up with Sentinels. He wasn’t so sure that was a good idea.

As they walked in through the school entrance, Scott intercepted their path to the Professor’s office. “You three, briefing’s this way. Pyro, Professor wants to see you.”

“I’m going with him,” Bobby said, surprising John.

Scott looked annoyed. “We don’t have time for this, Bobby.”

“I need to speak to the Professor,” the boy protested.

Scott looked like he would argue for a moment, but he relented. This mission must be really be urgent. “Fine. Shadowcat, Gambit, this way.”

“I don’t need you holding my hand, Bobby. I’ve spoken to the Professor alone a fair bit since I came back. As of yet, he has not drained my brain. Well, to my knowledge.”

Bobby didn’t smile, which clued John in that something might be wrong. “I know you don’t need me there, but I really do need to see the Professor.”

They were silent the rest of the way, with Bobby thinking about whatever it was he was thinking about, and John thinking about whatever Bobby could be thinking about. Maybe he didn’t want to go on the mission for some reason. Nah, he’d never let John go without him. He was cute and protective like that. He even held the door open for John when Xavier invited him in. Although John appreciated the sentiment on the inside, he made sure to act as though he resented its implications on the outside.

Xavier was seated behind his desk and he gestured towards the chairs. They sat down. “Bobby, I did not realise you would be here as well. Is there a problem?”

“Actually Professor, there is. I’d like to know why John’s being sent on this mission. He hasn’t had the adequate training yet.” Bobby aptly reminded John that protective could sometimes be offensive.

“Whoa, you came here to tell baldy I was incompetent?!?” John really hadn’t expected another argument today, but he wasn’t about to let this slide.

“No, I just wanted to know…”

“Bobby, please. John, you quiet down too. There’s no time for this. I had called John here to ascertain whether he felt capable of undertaking the mission or not. It is not open for discussion between you two. It is a matter for John only to decide.”

“But…” Bobby just wasn’t letting it go.

“John has fought Sentinels before. He has proven himself adept at dealing with them while he was in the Brotherhood. True, there are circumstances to be taken into consideration, which is why we are here in the first place.” John got a feeling he knew what those circumstances were, and Xavier’s next question proved him right.

“Do you think you can handle the power? You will need to control a substantial amount of flame in order to destroy them. The other X-Men will be present and if you lost control…” their imaginations ran wild with the unfinished sentence. If he lost control, there was a high possibility only he and Bobby would survive. In London he had become a mass murderer in the space of five minutes, it wasn’t impossible that it could happen again.

“I don’t know, to be honest. I’d have to let loose to really damage the robots, but if I did, then I’d be more dangerous than them.” It was a tough choice. Could he really let Bobby, Kitty and Remy go out there without him? What if something happened to them? He could never forgive himself for not being there. But what if he went along and he was the something that went wrong? That would be even worse.

“I don’t think he should go,” Bobby said again.

“Thanks for the faith, Bobby,” John said sarcastically. Just because he was doubting his control, didn’t mean his boyfriend should. 

“Bobby,” the Professor began, “I understand your concerns, but…”

“But he’s been drinking, Professor!” John glared. The ultimate betrayal. He’d been ratted out for drinking in the mansion by his own boyfriend. Bobby didn’t stop there, though. “And just tonight he set the cinema on fire! He’s not in a stable mindset and I really don’t think we should risk it.”

John wondered if he could develop heat-ray vision by glaring at Bobby’s head for long enough. But he had to turn to Xavier when the man asked “Is this true, John?”

He sighed. “Yeah. But it was Bobby’s fault, he pissed me off! He was acting like a jerk so I got annoyed and…” Xavier waved a hand at him and he trailed off.

The bald psychic sighed. “John, your reckless behaviour has made the decision for you. They will have to fight the Sentinels without you. They should be able to manage, though I would have preferred the odds if you had been there with them. What with Storm still unfit for dangerous missions and Gambit still being a novice of sorts, I would have liked to send some extra firepower along with them.”

“Professor, I’ll be fine. I’m awake and I’m sober and I’m calm, I’ll be fine! I can go, really.” He didn’t want Bobby out there without him.

But the Professor shook his head. “I’m sorry John, I simply cannot allow it when you would be a liability. Bobby, please make your way to the briefing room so you can get all the details.” As the boy stood up, he added, “also tell Hank to come up to my office.”

Once Bobby had left, John broke the silence. “What do you need Mr Blue and Furry for?”

If Xavier was offended by John’s description of their valued scientist, he didn’t show it. “Me and Dr McCoy have an appointment with the President.”

“This is pretty serious shit, huh?” He often swore in front of the Professor, just to prove something. He didn’t know what.

“It is important. Perhaps next time we can include you.” The Professor drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair. “But that isn’t what’s bothering you, is it?”

“I don’t…”

“I wouldn’t normally think it prudent to interfere in the personal lives of my students, but I worry about both of you. He cares about you, John. He loves you. I would very much like to see you both happy. It will take effort and time, as all worthwhile projects do, but you can make this work. I know you can.”

“Okay, we’ll completely ignore the fact that you’re giving me relationship advice. It’ll be a talk about the birds and the bees next.”

“I’ll allow you that much dignity,” Xavier said with a smile. Then added with a serious expression, “if you are taking precautions. You are, aren’t you?”

John nearly got up and left, but he noticed a glint in Xavier’s eye. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you? Don’t do that! I don’t expect it from you. And it’s not like you have the time now.”

“True.” Then after a knock at the door, Beast poked his head through, favouring them both with a smile that showed his fangs. “Ah, Hank. John, I would like you to help Pietro and Marie keep things in order while everyone is gone. The children have all been asked to remain in their rooms and get an early night. Fear of Quicksilver will keep them in place, I’m sure.”

“I don’t get why everyone’s so scared of him. He’s an alright guy,” John rethought that and added, “at the moment.”

“Yes, while he thinks there’s a possibility he’ll get what he wants.” Xavier sighed. “Unfortunately, we have no time to discuss this now.” Hank took the handles of the wheelchair and took the Professor to the door. “Take care of things while I’m gone. I know you’re able. Try and get some sleep, if you can.”

It was only when the Professor had left with the others in the Jet that John realised the significance. Once he’d realised it though, he couldn’t quite fit it in his head. No adults. Well, except for himself (almost) and he’d vowed years ago that he’d rather spend the rest of his life being a traumatised teen than someone who’d grown up too fast. And they’d left him in charge of the mansion. Were they crazy?

A breeze down his left blew his hair to the side as he left Xavier’s office. Pietro.

“Hey, you not going? I thought they would be sending you so you could blow up the robot rebellion. They said you’d be going.”

“Change of plan,” John said, flicking a flame into existence on his hand then swirling it with a finger as they walked down the corridor. “I’m not of sound enough mind.”

“Oh really?” Pietro didn’t seem as distressed at the prospect as John was. “Me neither! Well that and Xavier thought my father might be about, what with the mad mutant massacre and everything.”

“You really wanted to use that alliteration, didn’t you?” John asked with a smirk.

“I’ve also got X-Men Xtermination. I like that one.”

“You would,” John said dryly. “So did you ask to go and they said no?”

“Yeah. Xavier said it wouldn’t be safe and that I hadn’t had training and I was unreliable. It said it didn’t matter because it just made me a quirky unpredictable risk-taker, which I consider to be the best thing about me.” Pietro frowned. “It didn’t change his mind though. Which is a shame because I’ve become a whiz at dismantling those things.”

“Yeah. I don’t know if I’d like to go or not, but I do know I’d like to have the choice.” And he didn’t want his choice taken away by Bobby of all people. He would not be controlled again and Bobby was not his keeper.

“Why didn’t they give you a choice?”

“All that drinking we did earlier.” Although looking back on it, Pietro hadn’t drunk that much.

“Oh. Sorry, I guess that was my fault.”

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, I don’t know whether I really wanted to go or not anyway. I probably would’ve only made things worse.” He kept trying not to picture Kitty in flames.

The gentle hand on his shoulder stopped him walking and he looked at Pietro’s concerned face. “Don’t say that, John. I know you were a bit messed up for a while, but nobody controls the fire like you do. My father would never have recruited you into the Brotherhood if you weren’t impressive, he would have left you to drown at Alkali Lake. I’ve seen what you can do and it’s awesome. So don’t go putting yourself down, not after you’ve tried so hard to get out from under everyone else’s criticism.”

John smiled gratefully. At least someone still had faith in him. “Thanks. I just can’t believe Bobby would put me down like that.”

“What?”

“He told Xavier I wasn’t trained enough and not stable enough. It’s true, but that doesn’t mean I want my boyfriend shouting it around the place. He’s not supposed to believe it anyway.”

“That sucks. Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but your boyfriend’s a dick.”

“Now how could I possibly take that the wrong way?” John said. He knew Pietro didn’t like Bobby, he’d never expected them to get along. Bobby was too nice for someone with Pietro’s flexible morality.

“You’re supposed to be able to trust him to stick up for you, even when you’re wrong. I mean, I do, and I’m just your friend.”

“I suppose and… hey, you think I’m wrong? Wrong about what?”

Before Pietro could construct a crafty excuse, Marie’s annoying accent echoed down the hall. “There ya are! I’ve been looking for ya! I’ve made sure all the kids are getting into bed.”

“Bedding children is a new low for you,” Pietro quipped.

She tried to hit him, but he dodged at superspeed. She sighed. “So anyway, I was thinking we could maybe watch a movie? I told the kids if they needed anything that we’d be in the rec room.”

“I guess we could then,” John said with a shrug. He’d rather barbecue her and serve her up to the kids as a midnight snack, but that probably wasn’t what Xavier meant by keeping things in order. Bobby loved him anyway, there was no point in endangering that for something so petty as murdering Marie. “What you got?”

“I ain’t really got anything besides romantic comedies and I know you don’t like them.”

They made him want to vomit. “No, I don’t. But Pietro’s got Batman Begins. I think there’s a plucky female love-interest in there for you to idolise.”

She glared at him, but made no comeback. “We’ll watch that then.”

“I’ll fetch it,” Pietro said cheerily, speeding off to his room.

John started walking with Marie to the recreation room. There was a huge flat screen tv in there. Just as John was enjoying the silence, Marie spoke up. “I’m not supposed to say this in front of Pietro, but me or you has to check on Storm later, see if she needs anything. Pietro’s actually supposed to be in his room, but I figured if she’s staying in her room it should be okay for him to roam about the mansion.”

“Yeah.” John flopped down on the sofa. “There’s only been one problem since he got back, and Xavier said to him that she’d be ready to see him soon, apparently.”

“I don’t think I want to be there when that meeting happens,” Marie said.

“Who says you’ll still be in the mansion? You’ve got no powers. The only reason they’ve let you stay so long is because they need a babysitter. You don’t belong here anymore.”

She looked really hurt by his comment, but he couldn’t feel sorry. She’d kissed his Bobby. If she could, she’d steal him away. “I have friends here.”

“No you haven’t. You’re too much of a two-faced whore.”

For a moment, it looked like she would hit him, but when he ignited a small flame in the palm of his hand she must have reconsidered. She really was pitiful now. “I’ve got Bobby.”

“No, I’ve got Bobby. Deal with it.”

“All fires burn out, sugah. I can wait for yours. Bobby’s fickle. Look how quickly he went from me to you.”

“You dumped him.”

“Yeah, now tell me this. If I’d stayed with him, would he have ever cared for you enough to leave me?”

John grit his teeth and said nothing. She was just trying to bait him and he wouldn’t let her see it was working. “Where the hell is Pietro with that film? Shouldn’t take him two seconds… to…” he trailed off, staring at the television. It was hovering. “Magneto…” he whispered.

“Oh, so you haven’t forgotten about me? That’s good to know.” The voice came from behind them, making John and Marie jump and turn their heads. Magneto and Mystique were standing in the doorway with the Scarlet Witch.

Much to John’s shame, Marie was the first to find her voice. “What are y’all doing here?”

The television dropped to the floor and smashed. John caught sight of Pietro at the end of the hall, peeking round the corner and looking scared. He’d be better off hiding anyway. “I’m here to reclaim what is rightfully mine.” His eyes never left John’s.

“But there are Sentinels out there destroying everyone,” Marie said. John still couldn’t speak. “Why can’t you help stop them? They’re killing mutants as well as humans.”

“My dear, who do you think sabotaged the new Sentinel program in the first place? I couldn’t allow it to go on unhindered and I thought a massive malfunction like the one currently in progress would shock the public into a rethink of their mutant policies.”

“You’re the one responsible for the deaths of all those people?”

Magneto stepped closer to her. “Those people are your people. You’re one of them now.” John saw Wanda glance back down the hall. Pietro was gone before she could spot him. “Give me one reason I should not kill you right here.”

Marie turned pleading eyes to him. “John…”

“You can’t… it’s not right.” The words tasted nasty and false in his mouth. Magneto’s smug smirk said he’d noticed John’s awkwardness.

“You won’t stop me. I don’t think you can even try.” John reached towards his pocket for a lighter. Bobby would never forgive him if he didn’t do anything. “Your lighter?” Magneto raised a hand and the metal zippo flew from his pocket over to the man’s hand, then he handed it to Mystique. “You don’t normally require it. Maybe you just don’t care enough to create the fire that could save her.”

John concentrated harder, trying to ignore Magneto’s truth. He could do this. He had to. Small flames appeared at the floor in the corner. Not enough. Needed more emotion. This wasn’t about her, this was about Bobby. Bobby needed him to do this! Because if he didn’t, she would die, then Bobby would be sad and hang on, who gave him the right to worry about her so much! He was supposed to be in love with him and… that didn’t matter now!

Except it did. He couldn’t do this. He genuinely wanted Marie out of the picture. It was selfish and cruel, but he couldn’t help it. The flames faded and he couldn’t get them back. He didn’t care enough. If he had his lighter he could use that, but his own flame wouldn’t betray him by saving Marie.

“I’m sorry,” he said weakly, looking at her frightened face. “I can’t do it.”

“You can, you have to! They’re going to kill me, John!”

Magneto waved Mystique over. The blue woman grabbed Marie by the hair and threw her to the floor. She squeaked, but didn’t scream. Mystique knelt down to her. “You can scream if you want, darling.”

“No I can’t,” Marie whispered, tears forming in her eyes. For a moment, John was confused, then he realised. The children would hear. If they came to see what was happening…

That she had thought of them, had courage enough to remain silent for them, that brought begrudging respect along with fire. He blew Mystique away from Marie with a ball of flame but as he spun round to attack Magneto, he was knocked back to the wall by a hex bolt from the Scarlet Witch. As he tried to ignore the pain in his back and get to his feet, there was a sharp stabbing pain in his throat. He managed to stand and shove Magneto away, but then stumbled to the floor as the room blurred around him. Drugged. 

“John!” He heard Marie scream, but he could only watch helplessly as Mystique pinned her back against the floor. His powers were too dangerous when he wasn’t focused. He’d kill her.

“Pathetic, isn’t it, the way they beg for their worthless lives,” Magneto whispered in his ear. “Kill her. Kill her and we can be as if none of this ever happened. I will still look after you the way you need.”

“No.” He couldn’t, he wouldn’t. It wasn’t just Marie, she stood for something more now. She stood for Bobby’s ideals and John wouldn’t betray them.

“Very well. Do it,” he commanded Mystique.

The blue woman took John’s lighter and flicked it on. She held it to Marie’s shirt until the flame caught, having trouble as the girl squirmed and tried to escape. John tried to make the fire die away, but he was too worked up and to his horror, it spread across the girl’s chest. Mystique stepped away, the girl writhing on the floor as she tried to put out the searing flame. But it was growing too quickly. That synthetic skirt was melting, sticking to her legs. Scarlet Witch turned away, looking nauseous. Mystique and Magneto watched impassively. John couldn’t look away. He’d never been this close when the fire enveloped someone. It was horrific.

She soon stopped moving. She hadn’t screamed, but the fire alarms were sounding. John crawled over to her smoking body, charred beyond recognition. “Oh god…”

Then he was lifted onto Magneto’s shoulder and carried out of the fire escape. Everything was getting fuzzy around the edges. He was laid down in the back of a big van. “I’m sorry,” Wanda whispered, pulling his head into her lap.

He was sorry too, but not for the obvious. He was just sorry that Bobby would see Marie’s body, burned to the bone. He was sorry that Bobby would jump to the wrong conclusions. 

Sorry that Bobby might never love him again.


	30. Chapter 30

Bobby pushed himself up from the rubble after the last echoes of the explosion had died away. Everyone seemed to be in one piece. He went to speak but coughed instead as he inhaled dust and debris. At least he caught everyone’s attention. “Is that the last of them?” He really wanted to go home.

“Yeah, we got ‘em,” Logan said in a gruff voice as he lit a cigar.

“So what do we do now?” Gambit asked. The guy had opened up a serious can of whoop-ass on his first official mission with the team.

“We return home,” Scott said authoritatively . “Hopefully the Professor will be back too with good news, although I expect he’s probably still fighting through red tape.”

“Come on then,” Bobby said, heading towards the jet. “If we don’t get back soon, John and Marie will probably kill each other,” he grinned at Kitty.

“Must be nice to be so popular,” she replied with a smile.

Bobby sighed as he followed her into the jet and sat down in the seat behind hers. “I wish Marie would just find someone or something else to occupy her time. John’s insecure enough as it is, I don’t need her making things complicated. No matter how much I tell him I love him, if she’s trying to force her tongue down my throat, he has difficulty believing me.”

Gambit turned back to look at him through the gap in the seats. “You thought of maybe not lettin’ her get dat close?”

“Well it’s a good job he’s got you here to give advice,” Kitty said sarcastically. “You, King of the Not Touching Rogue.”

Gambit shrunk down into the seat, appropriately humbled. Bobby laughed.

The flight back to the mansion didn’t seem as long as the flight out to the battle. “That’s odd,” Scott said quietly as they approached the building.

“What is it?” asked Colossus, the large Russian sitting at the back.

“The students are all outside. I’ll pull up near the institute, there must be something wrong and I don’t want to risk the hangar bay.”

Bobby peered out of the window as they flew over the other students. He only managed a fleeting glance at them as Scott manoeuvred the jet around, but he didn’t see John.

Bobby had his seatbelt off and was bouncing impatiently waiting for the ramp to lower before the jet had even fully landed. He’d wanted John to stay behind where it was safe, what had happened here? Bobby was down the ramp before it had even touched the floor, jumping off the bottom and running across the grass to the Institute. On his way round to the front of the building, he noticed some of the windows were scorched. John…

“Bobby, wait!” He ignored Kitty’s shouted pleas and sprinted round to where all the young students were, in the front garden. Momentarily his worry was forgotten as he saw Ororo and Quicksilver both alive and in each other’s presence. Such a thing should not be possible, but they were both wandering around and reassuring the children. 

“Quicksilver, what happened?”

The pale boy looked up at him uneasily, then zipped over to his side. “A fire. I evacuated all the children and Storm put out the flames.” He glanced at the African woman with barely-veiled hostility. She returned the hate-filled look. Things were clearly not entirely resolved there, just moved to the side while there were more important problems.

“You’re okay, Miss Ororo?”

She nodded with a wan smile. “I can cope just fine for the moment.”

That was when the rest of the team came round the corner. Scott and Logan immediately raced to Storm’s side to find out what happened. Piotr and some of the others went to the children and spoke to them. Gambit and Kitty ran over to Bobby and Quicksilver. “Bobby, what happened? Where’s John?”

“I don’t know. Quicksilver?”

“He…uh…fuck, I don’t know how to tell you this.”

Bobby’s heart dropped all the way to the ground. Nothing filled you with dread quite like ‘I don’t know how to tell you this’. “Something happened, didn’t it? He’s hurt? Oh god, he’s dead.”

“Bobby, Bobby, breathe!” Kitty started rubbing his back. “Just say it, Pietro!”

“He’s not dead, okay?”

Bobby’s heart came back. “Not dead?” he asked, as if Quicksilver would suddenly change his mind and say ‘oh no, my mistake, he is dead after all’.

“No, he’s just… well, not fine. Um…”

“Out wit’ it!” Remy said, pulling a card out of his pocket. 

Quicksilver backed away slightly. “Hey! Chill out, okay? Don’t explode the messenger.”

Bobby patted Gambit’s hand and the man put the card away. “Okay, sorry. I just… we’re worried. We’ll be quiet, just explain what happened.”

Quicksilver sat on the wall and sighed deeply. “Right. I’d just gone to fetch a dvd for us all to watch. On my way back, I could hear John and Marie with seriously raised voices. He was calling her a conniving whore, she was lacking in originality and just pretty much reworded everything he said to her…”

“We don’t care about the quality of their insults,” Kitty said tersely. 

Quicksilver ignored her. “I wasn’t sure what to do, I didn’t really feel like getting involved. So I hovered round at the end of the hall, trying to decide whether to intervene or not, then there was this horrible scream. I’ve heard my fair share of screams, but this was agonised. I was so shocked I just stayed where I was for a minute or so. Then, when I went down to the room where they’d been arguing…” he looked at the floor.

“What? What was there?” Bobby shouted with desperation.

“Rogue. I mean Marie.” Quicksilver looked straight into Bobby’s eyes. “He killed her. Burned her to death. Nearly took half the mansion down with her.”

There was silence as they tried to comprehend it all. “Where is he now?” Bobby asked. John had this habit of making things clearer in Bobby’s world. If he could just speak to John, he could make some sense out of all this.

“Gone.” Quicksilver shrugged. “If you want my opinion, he’s Brotherhood-bound. My father would welcome him back no matter what he’s done.”

“So would I,” Bobby said without hesitation. Remy and Kitty stared at him like he was crazy. 

Quicksilver just observed him coolly. “I doubt your friends and your precious Professor feel the same way.”

Kitty put a hand on his arm. “Bobby, maybe…”

“If you say John’s leaving might be for the best, I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do, but you won’t like it and I don’t want to have to do it.” She let go of his arm.

Scott made his way over to their group. “Bobby, can I have a word?”

Bobby nodded and followed him over to the gate where there weren’t any students. “Is this about Marie? Because I’ve already heard.”

“Partly.” Scott sighed. “But it’s also about Pyro. I know you were both… close.” Bobby heard the hesitation. Somehow, Scott knew the extent of his and John’s relationship.

“Yeah, we were.”

“You understand he can’t come back. Not now.”

“Quicksilver got in,” Bobby pointed out. Not that he agreed with it, but John seemed to like the quirky speedster, so he didn’t mention his reservations on the subject.

“Yes, but this is Quicksilver’s first chance to prove his worth. Pyro left us at Alkali Lake. Then he got tired of the Brotherhood and crawled back here with his tail between his legs. Then he rejects the Professor’s attempts to help him learn control and returns to the Brotherhood, nearly getting you all killed in the process. You go to great lengths to retrieve him and how does he repay you? By burning Marie to death.”

“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

It took Bobby a moment to realise that shout had come from him. Everyone in the garden was staring at him like he was naked and covered in crap. 

“Sorry, I’m really sorry Scott. I never meant to… oh man.” He turned to run from the scene and fell flat on his face. It felt like he’d twisted his ankle, catching his feet in something. 

“Bobby, your feet… you’ve… hold still.” Scott fired a low-power optic blast at Bobby’s iced feet. He’d managed to freeze his own feet to the floor.

Bobby pulled his legs up and stayed sitting on the floor. Scott sat down next to him. “Sorry I shouted. It’s just… before we went out today, I knew exactly what I was doing and life was good. Then I get back and he’s gone.”

“Bobby, I don’t mean to keep saying this, but I think it’s important you actually listen to it. He murdered Rogue. Does that mean nothing to you? Pyro is not the main loss here.”

“I know, I know. You think I’m heartless? I thought I loved Rogue once, and once it sinks in I’m sure I’ll be bawling my eyes out, if it makes you happy. But thinking about it isn’t going to get her back. I can get John back.”

“Not here, you can’t,” Scott said firmly. “I didn’t want him here in the first place and everything he’s done has proved me right. He’s to blame for all of this, Bobby.”

“Magneto,” Bobby said under his breath. Magneto was the real one to blame. He was the one who took John’s childish discontent and matured it into hatred.

“What?” Scott asked, genuinely perplexed.

“It can all be traced back to Magneto. Even this.”

“Bobby, at some point Pyro will have to take responsibility for his own actions. You can’t keep pinning his deeds onto Magneto.”

“Where’s Quicksilver gone?” Bobby asked, ignoring Scott’s moral lecture on responsibility.

“I don’t know, he’s always zipping off some place. Don’t avoid the subject, Bobby. Pyro lit that fire because Pyro was angry at Rogue. Magneto had nothing to do with it.”

“Her name was Marie, not Rogue. She died a human.”

“Does it matter?”

“No, I suppose not.” Bobby hesitated, feeling something just within the reach of logic, not quite grasped. “Not to me or you, anyway.”

Scott sighed. “The children need to be taken back inside. It’s late and they’ve had quite enough drama for one day. We’ll have to tell them about Marie tomorrow. That’s going to be rough. I’ve got to contact the Professor too.” Scott stood up and looked down at Bobby, still sitting on the grass. “You coming inside?”

“No. I’m just going to think out here for a while.”

“Okay. Don’t fall asleep out here though.”

Bobby watched the man walk up to the Institute and start herding children inside. As if Bobby could possibly sleep. He went back to his thoughts. Marie had not had any powers. Experience had proved that John could happily roast people without powers, even by accident. But these days, he avoided doing so for Bobby’s sake. Marie must have said something that worked him up, then he lost control. It was probably an accident. Was Bobby about to let Magneto take John away from him again over an accident?

Hell, he’d defend John if he’d done it on purpose.


	31. Chapter 31

John didn’t know where he was. He was laying naked on a soft bed on his side. He felt dizzy. “Bobby?”

A arm draped over his midsection and lips caressed his ear. “Ssh, I’m here John.”

John relaxed back into the hold of his boyfriend, feeling enormous relief as though he’d just woken from a bad dream. Bobby’s hand stroked up and down his chest, occasionally rubbing over a nipple. John’s breathing sped up a little. He pushed his hips back lazily and felt Bobby’s erection pressing against his ass. “Mmm, make love to me?”

His neck was peppered with kisses. “My pleasure.” There was something a little off...

But soon John’s observation meant nothing to him as Bobby inserted a slick digit into his ass. John clenched automatically, then relaxed so Bobby could continue. He was moaning steadily by the time there were three fingers inside him, pushing back against Bobby’s warm hand, driving the fingers in deeper. “Please, Bobby...”

“Ssh, let me take care of you, Pyro.”

The sense of wrongness unsettled John again and he was about to say something, but then he was penetrated and his thoughts became background to the physical pleasure. Bobby pushed into him as deep as he could before drawing almost fully out of him again. John’s moans were much louder now. Bobby was being unusually firm with him. It felt good, much better than his typical hesitance. “Bobby...”

“Sssh.” A hand took hold of his cock and with rough strokes, brought John right up to the edge. John let out a needy groan as the hand touching him went away, but at least he was still being properly fucked. “Come for me.”

John did as he was told, coming hard over the sheets of the bed. “Oh god, oh Bobby...”

Bobby clutched him even tighter as he followed him into orgasm. John could feel him throbbing inside his ass. Too soon his lover pulled out and with a soft kiss on his back, rose from the bed. John sat up, confused. “Bobby?” Then his heart froze as he saw Magneto sitting on a chair by the door. No, oh no, no no... ‘Bobby’ reverted back to Mystique as she walked over to the Master of Magnetism. “I thought you were a bad dream.”

“You seemed to be enjoying yourself,” Magneto said calmly as Mystique left the room.

“What do you want with me?” John asked, ignoring the statement and the nauseous feeling he always got when Mystique touched him.

Magneto stood from his chair and walked over to him. Even in civilian clothes, he was an intimidating man. John backed as far up the bed as he could, so he was up against the headboard. “Everything, Pyro. I want everything with you. I want to help you, I want to share the new world with you. But first you must help me to achieve that world.”

Probably he meant more attacks on humans and human power bases. That wouldn’t be hard. It might even be fun. “If I help you, you’ll let me go?” He had to get back to Bobby. 

“Where would you go?”

There was no point in lying. “Back to the Institute.”

“To Xavier’s School?”

“Yeah, why not?”

Magneto laughed, a deep cruel sound. “My boy, they’re hunting you down. They’ve been ordered to attack on sight and shoot to kill.”

“I don’t believe you. They’re not like that. I won’t be manipulated by you anymore.” John steeled himself for the inevitable consequences of that statement.

But Magneto didn’t seem entirely bothered by his uncooperative response. “You murdered one of them. They take that kind of thing personally. Look how angry Storm was with Quicksilver.”

“But they’ve let him into the group, and anyway, I didn’t kill Rogue.” He just hadn’t helped. Somehow that didn’t alleviate the guilt.

“Who amongst them knows that you did not do it?” Magneto gripped his jaw, tilting his face up to look at him. 

“Pietro knows. He saw the whole thing, you know. You just didn’t see him. He was at the end of the hall.” Pietro would tell Bobby and Bobby would get everyone together and they’d come and save him so he wouldn’t have to lose control again.

Magneto smiled at him condescendingly. “Pietro is like an endemic illness. He’s always around and even when you can’t see him you must assume he is there. Luckily, he is more predictable than illness. He did not tell your boyfriend” the bitterness forced into that sweet word was so potent it almost leaked into the rest of the sentence, “what truly occurred.”

“What?” John felt his stomach drop. Why wouldn’t Pietro tell the truth?

“He told Iceman that you were to blame. That you lost your temper and Rogue paid the price.”

Bobby wouldn’t believe that though, would he? Wait. He had just told Professor Xavier what an unstable mindset John was in. the more accurate question would be, why would Bobby doubt it? “I’ll explain to them.”

“After they’ve killed you on sight?”

“Bobby wouldn’t do that!”

“I feel you overestimate him. He has every right to be angry at this perceived betrayal. He is probably gunning for you more than the other X-Men.”

John said nothing to that. He couldn’t believe it was true. Couldn’t and wouldn’t. “How do you know all this anyway?”

“Quicksilver has been in contact with us.”

That had to be a lie. “You’re bluffing. You guys have a hit out on him.”

“It’s been cancelled, in light of his recent contributions to our cause.”

Maybe Magneto wasn’t bluffing. It would be just like Pietro to weasel his way out of being killed. “What did he give you?”

“Well, through his careful warping of the truth in regards to Rogue’s demise, he has ensured that nobody will take you from me.”

“But he’s my friend.” This was getting to be way too much. Soon he wouldn’t even be able to trust his own reflection.

“Oh, he cares for you deeply. Who can blame him?” Magneto’s fingers began stroking through his hair. “That is why he has saved you from the misguided martyrdom of the X-Men. They would never let you become anything there. Not with your devastating power. It is not something Xavier can harness, so it is of no use to them. I, however, am far more creative.”

“You mean far more destructive,” John said. Under Magneto’s supervision John had become a thief, a killer, a terrorist. With Bobby’s care he had become a boyfriend with some semblance of a normal, fun life. Now he was being asked to give it all up again. “So Pietro thinks he’s saved me, huh? He already saved me from you once.”

“That was under an entirely different set of circumstances.” Magneto sat on the bed beside him. John pushed away so their bodies weren’t touching. “My son is in love with you. He’s pathetically transparent, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed his intentions.”

“Well yeah he did try and kiss me, but I thought... I just figured...” everything with Bobby had taken his attention away from it. Pietro had said nothing about it later and then all this had happened...

“You paid him no heed? Good,” Magneto said, visibly satisfied. “It would not be beneficial to encourage his affections. He is already under the illusion that I have lost interest in you. He believes you are available.”

“I bet you had something to do with that,” John said. Magneto didn’t just think he was superior to humans. He thought he was superior to mutants too and that he was perfectly within his rights to manipulate them all like puppets, bribing and making empty promises wherever necessary. And while John was probably his favourite puppet, he was still a puppet. That would never do.

“I may have suggested something along those lines, but it was absolutely essential to persuade him to his mission.”

“Which is?”

Magneto smiled at him fondly and shook his head. “There are some things, my dear Pyro, that you will be better not knowing.”

“It’s the X-Men, isn’t it? Now he’s integrated with them, you’re gonna have him double-cross them. Oh fuck.” It would be so easy for Pietro to do in the wake of the chaos Magneto had already caused.

“Please do try to refrain from swearing so much. In the bedroom or in battle it is perfectly acceptable but I do hate hearing it in the midst of a civilised conversation. It dirties your lovely mouth.” Magneto ran a thumb over John’s slightly parted lips. 

“I think you’ve dirtied my mouth to the point where it doesn’t matter,” John snapped back, feeling revulsion at himself for ever feeling anything for this man. 

Magneto just smiled darkly. “As much as I would love to continue our discussion, I have important business to attend to.”

He pulled something out of his pocket. A syringe. “Oh no,” John pleaded, “no more drugs. I’ll shut up and be good just please stop dosing me up on that crap.”

But Magneto easily held down his struggling body and pushed the needle into his neck. He stayed pinning John down until the pyrokinetic could no longer thrash against him. “There now, all relaxed. Isn’t that better?”

And it did feel better. Not the same as last time. Felt calm and good. “Whazzit?”

“Not the same drug I used on you before. This one calms your powers without quite suppressing them like the restraints do. I wouldn’t want to risk any damage to you.” He ran his palm down John’s cheek and John leant into it. Magneto looked at him with such a fondness. It was nice to see he could coax such a loving reaction from such a cruel man.

It also felt good to have a warm weight on him, pressing against his chest and his cock. Oh, it did feel really good to have Magneto warm against him there. “Feels good...” he murmured, pushing his hips up against the crotch of his captor.

“Does it now? Well there was an indication that this drug would have mood elevating and sedating properties. Perhaps I could make it feel better?” The man pulled back so that John couldn’t grind their crotches together. He held a hand hovering, tempting, over John’s erect phallus. “Is it what you want, Pyro?”

John nodded and made an incoherent noise of affirmation. Magneto smiled. “Beg me.”

“Please, please, please...”

“Mmm, music to my ears.” Then a firm hand gripped his cock while the other stroked gently and teasingly at his balls. “You will never comprehend what I feel for you Pyro.” A quick swipe of tongue on the head of his cock had John crying out with pleasure. “Never understand how much I want you to share this world with me.” The hand left his balls and stroked down to his asshole. “You are such a precious creature.” A finger penetrated him, moving until his prostate was pushed. “An angel full of fire for me to use against those low human beasts who would steal our world.”

John came over Magneto’s hands and the bed-sheets, gasping for breath. The room was spinning. He was tenderly wiped clean and covered with a blanket. Magneto pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Now if you’ll excuse me darling, I must check on Quicksilver’s progress.”

“Wha’?”

“I suppose I might as well tell you while you’re in this state.” Magneto smirked down at him. “I’ve asked him to kill Iceman.” Then he left John with the bombshell.

John wanted the news to shake him to the very core, to wake him up and provoke an explosion of fire that could free him from this room. But the drugs were too good and he just fell asleep thinking that it was a very, very bad thing that was happening.


	32. Chapter 32

"Bobby! Bobby, help!"

The house was on fire and he was outside, looking in. It was only him standing there, watching as flames consumed his home and his loves. Johnny and Marie were both inside, screaming at him through the window, both shoving each other aside to get a better view of him through the smoke-obscured glass. He wasn't sure what to do. He might be able to make an ice bridge up there, or maybe he should ice himself up and go in after them. He was better at maintaining his ice form than his ice bridge... "What should I do?" he asked the man standing beside him.

"Hmm," Magneto frowned in thought. "I could fetch Pyro and you could run in and grab Rogue."

"No," Bobby whined, "you always get to save John."

"That's not true, you saved him from my evil mind control and molestation last time."

"Yes, but you've got him back now. So it's my turn to save him."

"We could flip a coin for it," Magneto suggested.

"No, you'll just fix the outcome with your magnetic powers. You're evil, you cheat."

"That's a very black and white view of things."

"No, you're evil and you cheat. It's a very true view of things."

"Touché."

Bobby sighed. This was all very complicated. "How about we both save John, since Marie's already dead?"

"Hey!" The girl shouted from the window. "I resent that! Respect the dead, Bobby!"

"Shut up, you attention-seeking whore," John said, shoving her out of the window. 

Bobby watched her fall dispassionately. She was dead anyway, it wasn't John's fault. "Right, so now we can both get John."

"I say we wrestle for it," Magneto suggested.

"Alright," Bobby agreed. At last, a sensible solution.

"Should it be with chairs or without?"

"Hang on," Bobby said, "I'll just find out what Quicksilver wants."

 

He blinked awake, making a surprised noise as he realised Quicksilver was actually looming over him and his discomfort had somehow transferred into his dream. Quicksilver's blue eyes widened as he saw Bobby was awake. Weird. Bobby had expected to wake up one day with Pietro looming over John in the dark, not over him. "Is everything okay?" he asked the ex-Brotherhood member.

It was a mixture of quick reflexes and a knee-jerk ice response that let Bobby ice the floor the second he saw the knife. Pietro was fast, but his balance was not superhuman and the pale mutant slipped onto his back, dropping the weapon. The knife slid across the floor, spinning on the ice. "What the hell, Quicksilver?!?"

He didn't expect an explanation and he didn't get one. Quicksilver scrabbled across the frosty floor towards the knife. But Bobby was far more stable on icy surfaces than the speedster, and he skidded across to the blade first, snatching it up off the floor and keeping his distance from the now-still Quicksilver. He pointed the knife at the other teen in what he hoped was a threatening manner rather than a nervous one. "Tell me what's going on, right now!"

Quicksilver was in a crouch on the ice, poised for fight or flight. He looked over Bobby and the knife with obvious disdain. How someone could be so haughty at knifepoint Bobby had no idea, but he guessed it had something to do with being related to Magneto. After a few tense moments, the super-fast mutant sighed. "I would have thought it was obvious, Iceman."

"Well it's not, okay? Tell me why you attacked me."

"My father wants you dead. You're an obstruction to the plans of the Brotherhood."

"But..." Bobby stumbled over his words. "You're not... When did you start working for them again?"

"When John switched sides. Guess I'm more loyal than you," the teen snarked at him.

“And Magneto just let you back?”

“I’m extremely useful. In the space of a conversation I can plan ten alternate lethal attacks and escape routes from any kind of circumstance. Even the unparalleled terror of an icy floor,” he sarcastically drawled. 

By the time Bobby realised what Quicksilver was implying, he'd been knocked off of his feet. He landed on his back, gasping as the air was knocked out of him. The shock made him drop the knife and it slid over to Quicksilver's feet. The skinny speedster picked up the weapon as there was a knock on the door. "Bobby? Is everything okay in there?"

As Bobby went to shout, Quicksilver pressed the blade to his throat and a hand over his mouth. He shook his head and Bobby knew that if he spoke, he'd be killed. Slowly, Quicksilver raised his hand from Bobby's lips, allowing him room to speak and breathe. "I'm fine Scott," he called, "just an ice accident."

"If you're sure," the older mutant said through the wooden door before his fading footsteps indicated his departure.

"Couldn't you have killed me and escaped anyway, before they could stop you?" Bobby asked, confused as to why that little charade had been necessary.

"And take my chances with everyone in this house?" The teen shrugged. "Maybe. But I was told that discretion was of the essence. Starting a brawl with the X-Men is probably not as discrete as my father would like." 

There was no way out of this. He couldn't run from someone so fast and it would be pointless to try and fight with him. "If you really cared about John, you wouldn't let him go back to your father. It's not safe for him."

"What are you talking about?" Quicksilver sneered. "He's safer there than he is here. I'll take good care of him."

So that's what all this was about. Simple adolescent jealousy, twisted into murder by a twisted mind. "Your father won't let you near him. He's too possessive."

Quicksilver waved a hand dismissively. "My father has no sexual interest in Pyro anymore. His motives are purely for the sake of mutantkind."

“So he has a job for him?” Bobby asked aloud. That was rather convenient, John goes to the Brotherhood the second Magneto needs him...

“Shut up! This isn’t a conversation, it’s an assassination!”

“Silly little boy,” a woman’s voice said from the window, “it’s revenge, if anything.”

The action was blurred to Bobby, but from what he could just about see, Quicksilver had tried to dodge to the left, Ororo had anticipated it and lightning struck the speedster before he could strike her. Quicksilver hit the wall hard, and was unmoving on the floor. Bobby checked for a pulse and he was still alive and relatively okay, although he had some pretty bad burns on his chest. He turned to Storm, who was hovering outside of his window, her pupils returning to her eyes as the weather around her calmed. “Thanks. How did you know?”

“Your voice seemed a little strained. I thought I’d check through the window, just to be sure you weren’t doing something private. Then I see this snake hasn’t learned his lesson.” She entered the room and walked over to Quicksilver’s unconscious form, glaring at the teenaged mutant with unveiled loathing.

“Well I’m glad you showed when you did,” Bobby said. “He totally would have killed me, I know it. Such a basket-case.”

“He’s working for his father?” The woman asked, clearly having only heard the last of the conversation.

“Yeah.” Bobby picked the knife up off of the floor and handed it to her. “Apparently Magneto wants me out of the way. It worked in Quicksilver’s favour too, although I don’t believe for a second that Magneto’s lost interest in John.”

The bedroom door opened and Logan walked in with the Professor, who sighed heavily at seeing Quicksilver. “I see. Thank you for summoning me, Ororo. This is very disheartening. Logan, could you put him on the bed, please and remove the psychic inhibitor on his neck? I must discover how far Erik’s manipulation goes.”

Logan did as he was asked, placing the lightweight mutant on Bobby’s blanket then yanking the metal roughly out of the boy’s neck. Quicksilver groaned, but showed no signs of waking. The Professor went to his side and put his hands against Pietro’s forehead. His eyes closed and the room was silent for a few moments. Logan put a heavy hand on Bobby’s shoulder. “You alright?”

“Yeah, a bit shaken.” More like he couldn’t stop shaking. People trying to kill him in the middle of the night was way creepy and he kept wondering what would have happened if he hadn’t woken up when he did. He’d have been killed and John would have been left to Magneto and Pietro and all those other sick freaks that wanted to use him.

“Good god,” Xavier murmured quietly, before pulling back from Pietro’s still form and opening his eyes. “Logan, Ororo, take Pietro down to the detention cell.”

“We have some of the cure in stock,” Ororo said, the offer implicit.

“No,” Xavier said firmly. “That is too far. We might as well kill him. His powers are a part of who he is.”

“I almost did kill him,” Ororo said. “Don’t make me regret holding back by going all soft on him now.”

“With those kinda ethics, maybe you should go sign up with Magneto,” Logan said gruffly, effectively silencing Ororo’s anger as he picked up the limp speedster over his shoulder. “Come on. If he wakes up, you can zap him harder. How’s that?”

She smiled and followed him out of the room, hands crackling with energy that begged to be unleashed. Bobby noticed the Professor was not following them. “Uh, is there something wrong, Professor?”

“Sit down, Bobby,” the older man said, not looking at all happy.

Bobby nervously sat on the bed where Pietro had been moments ago. This could not be good. “What is it? Did he know something about John?” That had to be what it was.

“Yes. This is news that is partly welcome and partly chilling. Welcome, because John was not responsible for Marie’s death,” Bobby could have flown with relief, “and chilling, because we jumped to horrific conclusions.”

“Was it an accident then? I thought it was an accident!” Bobby couldn’t quite manage the chilling reaction yet. This was nothing but good news. John was innocent, Xavier said so! It didn’t change the fact that they’d lost Marie, but he’d deal with that when he had the time. 

“Not an accident, but a completely unrelated event. John attempted to save her, but Magneto and Mystique burned her. His control being unsteady at the moment, he was only able to increase the flames that would have killed her regardless of his involvement.”

“So they...” now Bobby was angry “...they set him up!” They’d known that everyone would blame John. It was their fault in the first place that everyone hated him, and they used it against him! The nerve!

“Indeed. Then, they kidnapped him. We believed that John went willingly, but he was taken against his will. Drugged.”

Bobby remembered the last time Magneto had drugged John. He felt sick. John could be going through anything at the hands of that maniac. “We’ve got to get him back, Professor.”

Xavier placed a comforting hand on his arm. “We will, Bobby. And speed is of the essence. Magneto plans to use John against us. He feels we are impeding mutant progress and he is tired to trying to make us ‘see the light’, as it were.”

“But John wouldn’t...”

“I imagine he will be manipulated. I don’t know how. Quicksilver’s knowledge of the plan was... sketchy, at best, but Magneto was adamant that you be eliminated. Clearly you are capable of somehow disrupting his scheme.”

“I don’t know, Professor. When John creates a fire, it gets harder to put out.”

“But when you touch him, he has trouble making a fire.”

“You think I can get close enough to him with Magneto nearby?”

Xavier smiled reassuringly. “We’ll deal with Magneto. You just take care of John.”

Bobby found himself grinning, even in the face of everything that was happening. Just take care of John. Now that was a plan he could really get behind.


	33. Chapter 33

John was thirteen years and two months old. Too young to be coming home to an absent father and a virtually comatose mother. He knew this, but it didn't really matter to him. Not the way it mattered to his teachers and neighbours. 

He was almost outside his house when he smelt the burning smell. It was sort of like smelly matches and John liked matches. His dog was called Matches, because there was a comic book character called Matches and he was cool because he was really Batman and what was that smell?

John dropped his light schoolbag over his collapsing wooden fence, into the tidy front garden. He liked tidying the garden, deciding which plants should live and which plants should die. 

Now without the burden of his backpack, he went to the alley by his house. The smell must be coming from there. Carefully peering round, he saw a group of kids from school. A couple of them were in his class, but most of them were a few years older than him. There was smoke rising beyond them, they were burning something.

"Is that as good as it gets?" One of the younger boys, his name was Mike, asked with obvious disappointment.

One of the older boys, John didn't know him, pulled out a lighter with a shark pattern on it. It was really cool. "Maybe if we light its face as well..." He knelt down with the flame and John caught a glimpse of fire waving by their legs, one of the boys jumping back as it got too close.

Then John heard a whine. Matches. Oh no. "Hey!"

They all turned around and now John could see his beloved mutt whimpering on the ground, flames spreading up his grey fur. "You bastards! Get the hell away from my dog!"

They sneered at him, but walked away. Clearly they had something more fun to do than torture defenceless pets. John ran up to Matches, but couldn't get close because the dog was still burning and barking and moving. He started to pull his jacket off so he could wrap the dog in it. "Hold still, you dumb dog, hold still!"

By the time his jacket was off, the dog was still. More still than he'd wanted. John felt the tears running down his cheeks as he reached out to stroke his pet one more time.

A flame leapt from Matches' tail to John's hand. He stared, thinking he'd been stupid and caught himself on fire and he should call nine-one-one, but then he realised it didn't hurt. It didn't burn him. It was a new toy.

He looked at his dead dog, still smoking and burning on the floor. He looked up to the far end of the alley, where the bullies stood. They'd been laughing at his tears, but now they were scared. He could see they were afraid of him, the way he could hold fire in his hand and not burn. He was better than them. They should burn.

With just that childish, angry thought, the fire swept down the alleyway, cremating his dog and scorching the walls black. He heard them screaming. The fire was hot and bright, he closed his eyes.

It took forever for the flames to go away. He'd thought for a moment that they never would and he'd be sitting here on his own in the middle of the fire for the rest of his life. Might be safer that way. 

John stepped over the ashes of his pet dog and went to the end of the alley where the boys had stood. They were probably dead. It would just be plain creepy if they lived looking like that, all burned and crispy. He picked up the shark lighter. It was very hot and he gasped as the heat seared his fingers. But he didn't put it down.

He found his tidy garden had caught alight when he got back. The fire had gone further than he'd expected. It didn't matter. He had more important hobbies now.

St John Allerdyce sat in his garden watching the fire spread until a dark skinned lady with white hair showed up and blew it all away.

 

It was one of those times when he forgot to pretend to be asleep as he woke up. He stretched and yawned before remembering his current predicament. He looked blearily around the room. There was nobody there. Normally he'd be accosted and drugged the second he woke up and then.... he didn't want to think about it. The recollections of Magneto's affection were blurry in his mind and he'd keep it that way. He was betraying Bobby every time John let Magneto touch him.

He really hoped Bobby was okay. There had to be one mutant in the mansion that could kick Quickie's ass. Had to be. If anything happened to Bobby because of Pietro's stupid crush on him, John would make sure all the Brotherhood paid. Magneto, Pietro, Mystique, Wanda....

The door opened quietly and the afore-thought young woman walked in with a tray. She smiled slightly at him. John had never seen her dark red lips turn up more than a fraction. Must be a lonely life, being the only member of the Brotherhood with any semblance of conscience. She put the tray down gently on the bedside table. It had a ham salad sandwich and a glass of orange on it. He briefly considered trying to make a run for it, but remembered that she could turn him into a bowl of fruit or something before he could lay a punch on her. "Do you need anything?"

"How long am I gonna be here, Wanda? I'm getting cramps in my feet, I'm starved of good company and your father keeps molesting me."

She visibly paled at the last comment. Clearly she'd been avoiding thinking about it. "I really cannot say. My father intends to keep you indefinitely."

John sighed. It was as bad as he'd feared. Magneto had some kind of plan or goal and until he achieved it, John would be stuck here. And considering how grandiose Magneto's plans usually were, that might be some time. "Couldn't you... loosen the binds a little?"

Her eyes softened and for a moment, he thought he'd got an escape route. But she shook her head. Apparently her sympathy was all she could give him. "Pyro, they'll know the second you're free. I have plans too, and I'm afraid they clash with yours."

He frowned. "Plans of your own? Does your father know about this?"

"I think he might, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with it. I won't be getting in his way. I just have to get Pietro, then we'll go and make our own lives away from all this. We were so happy before our powers emerged," she said wistfully.

John couldn't understand mutants not wanting their powers. Their supernatural abilities were worth any price. "What do you mean by getting Pietro? Is he in trouble or something?"

"He was caught in his mission. The X-Men have him detained. Father doesn't plan to save him, so I will go myself."

John's spirits soared at the news. Pietro had been caught. Bobby must be alright! All he had to do now was wait for an escape route to present itself or for Bobby to save him. Either way, he could be out soon and he could explain to them all that he had nothing to do with Marie's unhappy end. And they could all live relatively content ever after. "Will you be alright going in there by yourself?" He didn't really want any harm to come to Wanda. She'd been the only one to be half-decent to him in his time here.

She smiled slightly again. "You never did get to see me in action, did you? I'm told it's impressive."

"Impressive enough to take out all the X-Men?" John asked dubiously.

"Yes. Easily. But that isn't my intention. I'm going in, fetching Pietro, then leaving before my father begins the..." she quickly clamped her lips shut. The plan was not for John's ears, apparently. "I'm sorry. I must be going now or I will be too late. I really hope things get better for you, Pyro." But the look in her eyes as she left suggested she didn't expect it.

"You too," John called after her. She was a nice girl and, despite intermittent episodes of insanity, Pietro was a nice enough guy. It was only when he hurt Bobby that John felt he could murder him with his bare hands. 

It must have been an hour of escape plans before the door opened again, this time with the less pleasing arrival of Magneto. The old man looked remarkably smug about something, which made John uneasy. But Bobby was okay, so there was still that to hold onto. Magneto stood beside the bed and reached out to John's face. John instinctively backed away from the hand. He didn't break eye contact with the man. He wouldn't do this again. "Did you have a nice conversation with the Scarlet Witch?"

He wanted to tell him to call his daughter by her real name, but knew that would start an argument over real names and code names that really was irrelevant here. "Maybe. She actually treats me like a human being."

"Considering what she does to homo sapiens on a regular basis, I would hope she treats you more as an equal homo superior," Magneto said wryly.

John sighed and lay back on the bed. He wasn't in the mood for this stupid petty banter. He wanted to go home to Bobby. Only the thought that he could get back soon somehow stopped him from launching at Magneto stupidly. It would only cause another drugging like it did last time, and with the drugs came the.... John felt sick. He wouldn't let it happen again. He wouldn't betray Bobby by letting himself be touched. "You should eat," the older man said with a sigh.

He must have noticed John's uncooperative mood. John reached for the sandwich and started to eat, occasionally washing it down with the orange. "You drugging me again today, you sick freak?" 

Magneto, as usual, showed no displeasure at being insulted. It took more than words to hurt him. "Not with the usual, you'll be interested to hear. I have something else for you today, something that won't repress your powers."

John briefly entertained the thought of incinerating Magneto, but remembered that the man was capable of impervious shields that meant he could not be burned. Life was so unfair. "Why aren't you repressing my powers?"

"I have my reasons," the man smiled enigmatically. Then he reached down and stroked John's hair again.

John felt the bile rise in his stomach. This wasn't what he wanted anymore. If Bobby had returned his affections before Alkali Lake, he might never have wanted this. He didn't need a psychotic megalomaniac to tell him he was special now. He knew that out there was someone better who loved him for who he was instead of what he could do, and it was Magneto stopping him from getting to Bobby. "Don't touch me. I'm not interested."

Magneto sighed, a heavy and sad sound that almost had John feeling kind of sorry for him. He knew that Magneto, in his warped way, loved him. But John didn't want to be the powerful mutant tool that Magneto wanted him to be. For the first time in what had to be a year now, John wanted to be John. Not Pyro. John had Bobby, after all. Pyro didn't really have anybody. "It really doesn't matter if you're interested or not."

"You're just gonna drug me and molest me again? You're disgusting."

"The drugs are already in your system. You'll be feeling the effects of the new mix in minutes. But I don't intend to be intimate with you yet, if you don't wish me to be. You'll soon come around."

John glanced at the tray, with it's empty glass and barren plate. The food and drink had been spiked. Fuck. He hadn't expected that. The sneakiness wasn't normally necessary after all, they normally just stabbed him with a syringe. "I don't understand."

"Of course you don't. The reason you will soon come around, is that there will be no alternative to my company. You're young, you will get desperate."

"I'm getting out of here, you know," he blamed his sudden talkativeness on the drugs. "Doesn't matter what you do. You can't keep me here forever, and when I'm out, I'll go back to Bobby and..." he was interrupted by a boom of laughter from Magneto.

"Now dear boy, what did I tell you about that ridiculous Iceman? I've had him killed. Pietro was given the task days ago."

John shook his head, the room spinning slightly as the drugs started to kick in. "Wanda said the X-Men caught Pietro."

"Well yes." The man was still smiling. "Once he'd finished his mission."

It didn't quite sink in.

"I... Bobby's..." 

"Dead."

There was a moment where everything stuck. It was a transient peace, the eye of the storm. The words filtered slowly through his ears, through his mind, before settling down with a thud and smothering all other thought.

"NO!"

The fire swept outwards not just from his hands, but from his entire body, from every pore in his skin. If he'd been clothed, the material would have been destroyed. The blanket was the first casualty, followed only a few seconds later by the entire bed, the frame melting into molten metal. The flames had never been this hot, this fast, this big...

There was curse from Magneto's direction, but John could barely hear it through the roaring flames and he's lost sight of the man as the flames burned brighter and higher. 

'An angel full of fire for me to use against those low human beasts who would steal our world', that was what Magneto had called him. But John...Pyro...was no angel, and he would use fire against everyone indiscriminately. They'd all failed him and he'd failed Bobby. They could all burn.

The walls were collapsing, the ceiling falling, but it was burned to nothing before it could stop him. Cleansing fire, that was what Magneto had wanted, wasn't it? John would cleanse the whole fucking city of its meaningless, insignificant life, human or mutant.

They had to be downstairs, he realised as the carpet burned away to show floorboards, then that burned right down to the foundations as the building crumbled around him, the framework of the manor house now just a dark outline in the bright fire. Bobby was dead. Just thinking about it filled him with fire, as though he was a dragon with a belly full of flame that had to be exhaled.

John screamed, a desolate sound that brought another explosion of fire, destroying the remnants of building that still stood. He fell to his knees, the tears like fire down his face as the flames continued to grow and billow and spread. A fire radiated from his body in all directions, decimating nature, demolishing cars and destroying people. They all deserved it. 

"Johnny!"

John sobbed. He could even hear Bobby calling him. But Bobby was dead. The fire grew, the noise of the flames not quite muffling the screams and explosions. Houses fell. John could feel it. In that moment he was the fire, reaching over and extinguishing every stupid little life, free from pain. Fire felt nothing but fury.

"John! For God's sake, John!"

Cold. 

He was cold.

John felt the chill spreading down his arms and back, down to the tips of his toes, cooling the fire and draining it away. He opened his eyes. There were frozen arms wrapped around him, holding him. He turned his head and saw Bobby's concerned blue eyes. Bobby's body was defrosting from his ice form. But Bobby was dead. Was it Mystique? No, she wouldn't be so cold. Bobby.

He stared at the other boy for what felt like forever. "You're dead," he whispered.

Bobby shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm right here. You've been lied to. Is that what all this is about? Jesus Christ, John."

Then he was being held tighter, closer, his head tucked firmly in against Bobby's neck and shoulder. It was nice and cold. The last of the fires ebbed away. "Love you," John murmured tiredly.

There was a short laugh. Then there was sniffing and harsh breaths that meant Bobby was crying now.

"I love you too, you crazy bastard. God help us both."


	34. Chapter 34

"Hey," Bobby said, dropping to sit in the grass casually. "Sorry I haven't been by, it's been crazy like you wouldn't believe. I got you a rose." He held up the deep red flower as if for appraisal. 

He took a deep breath in through his nose, savouring the fresh air. "Our room reeks of weed again, due to someone who shall remain nameless. I should probably say something, I hate it when he smokes that stuff. But it's just for relaxation. If it becomes a habit, I'll bring it up. He only does it after run-ins with the Brotherhood anyway." 

Bobby's eyes lit up with the realisation of untold news. "I haven't told you, have I? We caught him, we caught Magneto. He went on trial the other day. John testified. We're all really proud of him. Course, if we say it he gets all snarky and embarrassed, it's kind of cute. The Professor pulled some serious strings to make sure John wouldn't get in any trouble for his involvement with the Brotherhood stuff. He had to talk to the President! You can imagine how John felt about that," Bobby said with a fond smile. "He hates owing people stuff. He's saying it's the least he deserved after all the mental trauma, but I can tell he's really feeling awkward about Xavier doing him a favour like that."

Bobby sighed then, his happy enthusiasm fading with the breath. "I'm sorry. Whenever I come out here it's like I only talk about him. You must hate it."

"Give her some credit," a voice said from a short distance behind him, making Bobby jump. He turned to see John walking down the lawn towards him.

"What are you doing here?" Bobby asked, confused. John was supposed to be in a Danger Room session right now.

"You want me to go?" The pyrokinetic offered.

"No, you can stay. You think she'd mind?"

"Nah." John sat down next to Bobby on the grass. "She would've come round to reality, if she'd had the time."

Bobby drew in a shaky breath and John held his hand on the grass. "I'd hoped she would. She was nice. I know you two never got along but John, she was..." Bobby's eyes watered, "...really nice."

"Hey, come here." John held out his arm and let Bobby rest his cold head on John's warm shoulder. "I know she was alright. I was just jealous, I guess. She was like a symbol of how fucked-up I was and I hated her for it. It wasn't fair. But it wasn't entirely one-way either," he added, pointing angrily at the gravestone.

"John."

"Sorry. I thought you were crazy for doing this, but it's kind of easy."

"Easier," Bobby corrected. "I know I'm being accused of morbid behaviour, but..."

"Not everyone can launch themselves wailing at their girlfriend's graves, right?" 

"That better not be a dig at Mr Summers, John. Scorning grieving people is wrong."

"Well I'd heard that two wrongs doesn't make a right, I figured I'd see if fifty would do it."

Bobby laughed quietly and pulled John close to him. "You make this easier too, you know."

"Really? I'd worried I was making this harder on you."

"Is that why you never come with me?"

John nodded, looking serious. "I thought.... I don't know. I guess I thought it would be disrespectful."

"You've been getting some serious lessons in tact lately," Bobby said, stroking a hand through John's hair.

"That speech was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, Bobby." He'd had to appear on television after the accident, making a public apology, expressing his deepest regret, assuring everyone it would not happen again.

"You were wonderful, John. Kitty cried."

"She cries at commercials."

"Still," Bobby shrugged. He'd been pretty moved by it himself. Finding out that John would inadvertently annihilate cities should anything ever happen to him, that was both scary and deeply touching. "Remy popping the question at dinner?"

John nodded, visibly unimpressed. "I told him it's too fucking soon to be thinking of marriage, she's only just about legal age for it. He said," John put on an atrocious Cajun accent, "Gambit not askin' for yo' opinion cheri, I jus' wanna know what Kitty will say." John sighed. "So I said she'd almost definitely say yes. She's that kind of girl."

"Well we'll be here if anything happens. We owe them."

"Yeah. I get to be best man, you know." John was trying to put on a look of disgust, but Bobby could see he was flattered.

"So I get to see you in a tux?"

"Do I have to wear one?"

"Oh yeah, weddings are all about the formal dress. Haven't you ever been to one?"

"No," John said, looking wary.

Bobby kept a straight face as he went into the details. "As the best man, you'll need to know the first and last names of everyone there, both families. You'll be in charge of the seating, and cueing the music." John's expression was one of horror. "You'll also need to keep an eye on the flowers and make sure the bride gets there on time." 

Bobby couldn't stop himself from sniggering then. John was confused, then angry. "You bastard!" He shoved him away and Bobby fell back onto the soft grass, still laughing. "You're just trying to scare me, you sadistic..."

"You're scared of weddings?" Bobby said, feeling slightly guilty when he saw the nervous look on John's face.

"Not scared, as such. Just... Bobby, I don't own a tux. I've never worn a tux. I'm scared of speeches. I lose my cool easily in crowds, especially since that last accident."

"How's that coming along?" John was particularly volatile at the moment, but he was making progress with his control.

"It's okay. It's weird though. They're testing me by having Logan piss me off then seeing how badly I hurt him. I swear, the guy could make some extra cash as a crash test dummy. I burnt his face off today. Literally. That's why I'm out early. The Professor wanted to make sure his regenerative capabilities could heal it properly." John shuddered. "It was disgusting."

"What did he say to make you so mad? I mean, if you know it's just a test, surely it's not a reliable experiment."

"It doesn't matter."

"What did he say John?" Bobby asked in his firm 'I won't have sex with you' voice. 

John sighed and a small flame sparked into life on his index finger. Then his gaze drifted to the gravestone and he quickly extinguished the flame. Even if he couldn't believe she was in anyway conscious of their presence, he couldn't have a flame here now. "He said I was Magneto's discarded whore, not fit for licking your shoes."

Bobby was on his feet and facing the mansion before he'd even thought about it. John grabbed his shirt and pulled him roughly back down to sit on the grass. "He apologised afterwards Bobby, it was just a test. He didn't mean it, he's only helping Xavier help me by practising my control."

"I don't care if he apologised or not, he..."

John interrupted, desperate to be heard. "Bobby, I burnt off his face. He apologised. He apologised with half a fucking face!"

Bobby calmed down. "Okay. Alright." They sat in silence for a while, both looking sombrely at 'beloved friend'. "'Courageous woman'," Bobby read out loud. "I've always thought that was nice." His voice was a little choked.

"Hmm," John said without much emotion. He'd asked for 'Courageous Woman'. It was more true than 'Beloved Friend', for him at least.

More comfortable silence. Then John remembered the news. "I got a postcard," he said suddenly.

"Oh?"

"Pietro and Wanda. They're in England. Wanda loves it. Pietro says it rains too much."

"That all?"

"Well Wanda apologised for everything and Pietro said you're still a dick."

"Oh." Bobby grinned. "Anything else?"

"It was only a postcard. Wanda says she'll send a letter when she's got something worth saying and a return address I can write back to."

"That's nice."

"Yeah. Listen, it's kinda cold out, so I'm gonna head inside, okay? I've still got to write that damn essay on comparisons between mutant rights and female rights." He leant over and kissed Bobby on the cheek, his lips hot on Bobby's cool skin, a promise for later. "See you at dinner, Bobby-boy. Later, Rogue."

Bobby watched John walk towards the house. It wasn't long until dinner, judging from the dim sky.

"I'm sorry Marie, I really am. For so many things. But never for loving him. I couldn't have felt any different if I'd tried. I'll always cherish what we had, me and you, and I'll never forget you. But I think... it might be a while before I visit again. He's still feeling guilty over what happened to you, whether he admits it or not. It hurts him when I visit you." Bobby sighed. "I should have made the choice a long time ago, then maybe you'd have lived. But it's better late than never, as they say, so I'm choosing now." Bobby stood up and brushed grass off of his trousers. It was starting to rain.

"I've chosen John." He formed an ice rose in his hand, kissed it, and placed it next to the real flower. "Goodbye, Marie."

Bobby turned to see John had not yet reached the house, and called after him. He broke into a sprint and caught up with his lover, taking his hand so they could walk together into the future.

The way it should have always been.


End file.
